Lagavulin 16 Year Old

I bought this bottle with high expectations, after reading lots of consensual positive comments about its strong, smoky and powerful flavours. I have tasted it several times since, and each tasting confirms my opinion. For a first review in Connosr, it might be a little bit severe and polemic one, as my senses disagree quite absolutely from 92% of the Connosr malt reviewers. (Just after writing this review, I looked at the other reviews here: only 5 reviewers have given worse ratings than I did - but 2 of them say that they love it, and 67 have given higher ones.) I admit this may be the result of my own taste and personal preferences.

Nose. Quite restrained, but after a (too) long time, it opens. Round and enveloping, but not as rich and complex as I would expect. Caramel (explicitly added by the distillery - oh, I don't like it!), some honey notes, smoky peat prevail to the extent that other fragrances are squashed.

Palate. Toffee and sweet almond oil smoothly caresse the palate, the oily texture dominates, but again I failed to clearly identify something more complex than this sensation of sugar and sweets.

Finish. Short, with pleasant notes of coffee, white chocolate and some bitter almond. Part of what remains after, though, is an unpleasant memory of one of those cough syrups I sometimes take in the winter. Fortunately not as unpleasant as them.

This whisky is hard to approach when one is looking for complexity. It is a little bit podgy, clumsy. Would be easier to taste after a long walk under battering rain, as it brings comfort and warm: I would not recommend it for other purposes, as it is a worth-to-try but probably overpriced whisky.

Find where to buy Lagavulin whisky