Lagavulin 16 Year Old - White Horse - Late 1980s

INFORMATION

Lagavulin 16 Year Old. White Horse Distillers. Bottled late 1980s. 75cl. 43%.

An early White Horse bottling of the Classic Malts Lagavulin 16-year-old, this edition dates from the late 1980s when every batch of this magnificent dram seems to surpass the previous one. Like its stablemate Talisker, Lagavulin’s occasionally fierce peaty power became so popular with malt whisky fans that aged casks of the distillery’s whisky were soon in danger of exhaustion and stock of Lagavulin 16-year-old was frequently rationed to protect future releases.

DISTILLERY:Lagavulin

DISTILLERY STATUS:Working

Bottle ABV:43%

Bottle SIZE:75cl / 750ml

BOTTLER:Distillery Bottling

SPIRIT TYPE:Scotland

CASK TYPE:Single Malt

REGION:Islay

BOTTLING DATE::Late 1980s

AGE:16

Lagavulin is one of the triumvirate of active 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.