Lagavulin 16 Year Old

Nice. It sounds like this was your first peaty bottle, but was it also the first peaty whisky you ever had, period? Lagavulin 16 is usually considered one of the most refined peaters, so I wonder how you perceived it relative to its Islay brethren.

This was my first bottle of such heavily peated whisky, not my first introduction to peat at all. There are plenty of Scotches with a mild peat in the profile. I have also had Laphraoig and some others and yes, Lagavulin is more mature. However, my ability to pick out distinct aromas and flavors like I can in a Macallan, Hibiki, or Glendronach is fairly nonexistent with this whisky. That's not to say those subtleties aren't there, I can tell its a fantastically well rounded dram. I only meant that relative to my usual choice in whiskies it seems more of a rock concert than a symphony to make a poor analogy.