Anyway, there's no doubt that Lagavulin is an Islay Great, so I was really looking forward to see if they were able to hold their flag high with this 8yo release... It's supposedly matured in both refill European and American oak and then bottled at 48% abv.
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| The Lagavulin Pagodas, May 11th 2015 © The Malt Desk |
Lagavulin 8yo 48% 200th Anniversary edition, Distillery bottling
Colour is pale white wine
Nose:
A bit young but that was to be expected... quite some barley sugar sweetness coming through wrapped in camp fire smoke and a mineral/flinty note. A little honey, banana and melon on the grill and smoky white rum. Very well behaved for an 8yo, I must say...Taste:
Surprisingly little youth influence, although its noticeable...
I get the feeling that there's some whisky, slightly older than 8yo making up this one. There's a lot of campfire notes again, like lipping the end of a burnt log, very drying like ash and wet wood and leaves. Again I get that mineral and flinty note but this time its very well wrapped in gingery and slightly nutty notes... almonds maybe? - especially with water... the finish is very much on smoky, salty seaweed so here its leans a bit more on the Lagavulin 12 style... I just wish it would have been bottled at, maybe 55%??
Its certainly an enjoyable whisky and its being sold for €40 in discount supermarket here... so certainly a bang for you buck whisky here!! However that won't affect my mark
86/100!
