Lagavulin 8y with Dan & Goran

Aw yiss. A classic of the form. One of the pantheon. A real… thing of the… stuff.

Lagavulin 8y. We’ve had exactly one Lagavulin before because they are prized, rare and expensive. But if you want a true Islay and have had enough Bowmore, you should try Lagavulin at some point. It’s like an off-white cable knit sweater in November. It’ll settle you down.

The website says the 8y expression is a limited edition for the distillery’s bicentennial, but there’s no mention of it on our bottle, and there’s no mention of a regular 8y on the site. Every other mention of an 8y seems to be about the limited edition but those words are not on this bottle. I bought it in 2017 so ascii.shrug. I would tell you more but i don’t know it to tell. Here’s what we thought:

nose
Dan – smooth, perfectly balanced campfire with a bit of wood, slight sweetness
Simon –  brine, salt, smoke, sea
Goran – honey, maple, root vegetable, peat

neat
Dan – creme brule, dried cherries, rum candies
Simon – toffee, smooth, stays together
Goran – bright, little depth but sweet, citrus, oat

finish
Dan – smooth, easy, short
Simon – nuclear explosion in the chest, nice smoke on the lips
Goran – long, bright, some tongue bite, very warm chest

splash
Dan – far smokier, in a good way, same as neat, no cherries, more wood and spice
Simon – sweet syrup, smoka cola
Goran – smoother, honey, smoke trail

overall
Dan – 10/10
Simon – 9.4/10
Goran – 7/10

Lagavulin 8y – 48% 750ml – $98.15 – Islay

Try it? Yes. Buy it? Yes.

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