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Lagavulin 15 Year Old. Bottled mid 1990s. Bottled at the Bruichladdich distillery for The Syndicates. 70cl. 59.2%. No box.
One of a handful of spectacular single cask Lagavulin 1979 15-year-old cask strength Islay single malt whiskies released in the mid-1990s by the secretive Syndicate, a consortium of private individuals and whisky industry folk with strong Islay connections.
Released at a devastating 59.2% natural cask strength, this 15-year-old Lagavulin 1979 was one of the first casks bottled by the Syndicate from their remarkable batch of 1979 casks, and its label used the same marketing text and quote from William Blake’s poem The Strange Horse of Suinabhal as Lagavulin’s official bottlings of the day.
Despite the group’s inside connections, this was all deemed a bit too cheeky by Diageo predecessor UDV, so this label was discontinued for future releases - indeed, this bottling is one of two Syndicate Lagavulin 15-year-olds at exactly the same strength of 59.2%, so it’s possible that the rest of this particular batch had to be relabelled, which would make this bottle even scarcer. A fabulous dram for collectors as well as for Islay whisky fans.
Lagavulin is one of the classic distilleries on the southern coast of Islay, famed for their heavily-peated single malt whisky. Situated between Laphroaig and Ardbeg on the road from Port Ellen to Kildalton, Lagavulin is often considered the most stylistically elegant of the trio, perhaps because its entry-level 16-year-old is generally more nuanced than its neighbour’s standard 10-year-olds. Lagavulin’s house style also embraces a strong sweetness alongside its phenolicity.
Lagavulin has been a staple of United Distillers/Diageo’s regionally-themed Classic Malts range of single malt whiskies since the series first appeared in 1987. The distillery’s relatively low output and long ageing requirements mean that stocks must be carefully husbanded and independent bottlings of Lagavulin are therefore exceptionally rare, although some superb long-aged examples have appeared from The Syndicate, a mysterious cabal of Islay insiders.
The Syndicate is a group of private individuals who have bottled a small but significant string of outstanding casks of Islay whisky in the last few decades. The Syndicate is believed to have been formed in the 1980s by former Bruichladdich chairman Sir John MacTaggart, a prominent Islay landowner and businessman, along with members of his family and several whisky industry figures.
The majority of The Syndicate’s infrequent bottlings have been Lagavulin, including a superb parcel of casks from the 1979 vintage that have been released at ages from 15 to 40 years old and include some of the greatest ever bottlings from the distillery. Other notable Syndicate whiskies have included several remarkable casks of Laphroaig 1988 and Caol Ila 1990, and the only non-Islay bottling - a 1990 Macallan released in 2010.
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