Lagavulin 1984-1995 - 11 Year Old - SMWS 111.3

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 Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) began in late 1970s Edinburgh when founder Pip Hills persuaded a group of friends to chip in for a cask of Glenfarclas, and was officially formalised in 1983. Today the SMWS has two venues in Edinburgh, a London bar and a string of international partnerships serving its 35,000 members. 

The Society’s whiskies are known for their unique SMWS coding system. Each cask bottled is assigned two numbers, representing the distillery and the bottling number, so 1.45 is the forty-fifth cask bottled from the first distillery and 33.27 is the 27th cask from the 33rd distillery.

Glenmorangie bought the Society in 2004, but sold it in 2015 to a private consortium who floated the SMWS on the stock market in 2021 via their holding company Artisanal Spirits Co.