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Lagavulin 1981 - Distillers Edition 2000
Lagavulin 1981. Distiller's Edition 2000. Double Matured Special Release. 70cl. 43%.
Bottled in 2000, this early vintage Lagavulin 1981 was, like its predecessors in the Distillers Edition series which had begun in 1997, a fine example of Diageo's wood-finishing at its best, with the steelier Lagavulin spirit from the early 1980s developing incredibly well over at least 16 years of maturation in high quality bourbon hogsheads before being re-racked for a further two or three years of meaningful development in what were still excellent quality sherry casks - or perhaps only casks treated with excellent quality sherry, who can say.
Either way, the quality of these early vintage bottlings from the Distillers Editions series was so much better than the modern no-age-statement non-vintage editions - we’d love to see the properly aged (or at least honestly-labelled) DEs make a comeback.
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.
Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.
This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.