Undercover n°1 – Lagavulin 14y 1994
(53,1%, Daily Dram 2008, 196 btl.)

Typical Lagavulin, big and punchy, a tad farmy, whiffs of sea air. Really smokey. An instant classic, better than other independent Lagavulin bottlings. It will cost around € 100 though, which I think is a little pricey compared to a standard 16y or the recent 1995 release for Friends of Classic Malts (both around half the price). Is this Laga twice as good?

Undercover n°2 – Talisker 24y 1984
(51,9%, Daily Dram 2008, 82 btl.)

Very fruity, with a great, peppery attack and a lingering finish. Some lemons, maybe less smokey than most official bottlings (or was this the influence of the other Undercovers which I nosed / tasted simultaneously?). Really good. I had the feeling this one deserved better conditions to taste it properly. Hopefully some other time. Again, not cheap: € 150.

Undercover n°3 – Ardbeg / Laphroaig / Bowmore 15y vatting (57,5%, Daily Dram 2008, 320 btl.)

This is a vatting of 3 Islay malts (according to new laws, we should say ‘blended malt’ now instead of ‘vatted malt’). You can easily tell that the main part is Ardbeg. Lots of peat smoke, quite dry. Some acid notes (lemon). Good balance and very powerful. A vatting which brings out the typical flavours of the ingredients. Price: around € 75.

What can I say? Quality-wise: excellent bottlings, only positive feedback and thumbs up for buying casks from distilleries which are a bit harder to find in independent bottlings. I just fear that they may be a little over-priced. Financial crisis, you know… I hope this is not a permanent evolution in the Daily Dram series.

Some of the casks that were used, had been intented for bottling as a Distillers Edition, but they were found to be too good to be blended in such a large batch.

Lagavulin NAS ‘only available at the distillery’ (52,5%, OB 2010, 6000 btl.)

Nose: close to the Distillers Edition. Definitely sweeter than a regular 16yo but my DE is still sweeter. Like a peated apple juice, or peach syrup served in an ashtray. A very nice profile. Brown sugar. Lovely butter biscuits. Quite tarry. Some coal and liquorice. Seaweed. Mouth: quite sweet again. Creamy chocolate coating. Some coffee. Plums. Vanilla. After a while the peat and soot take over and the whole gets drier with hints of lapsang tea and tobacco. Mouth: long and smoky with a spicy edge.

I love the Lagavulin DE style, with its combination of peat and PX sherry. At cask strength, this combo is even more expressive. Round, sweet and balanced. Around € 85.

Score: 90/100

Lagavulin 12yo Special release
(57,1%, OB 2006)

Nose: more mineral and oily than the 2009 release. Cleaner and more rounded, not as peaty as I remembered it. More citrus, vanilla and hay. Apples, grapefruit, slightly minty. Marzipan. A little banana skin. Some leather. Flowers. Let’s just say it’s more gentle but also more complex than the 2009 release. Mouth: quite sweet with nice notes of oranges and fruit drops. Some maritime notes (seaweed). Soft spices. Citrus. Showing quite some salt as well (liquorice towards the finish). Finish: very sweet but getting drier. Quite long and smoky.

Please remember that the 2009 version was quite peaty and rough. The 2006 release certainly isn’t weak, it’s very powerful but just very sophisticated at the same time. Quite impressive for a young malt.

Score: 87/100

Lagavulin 12yo Special Release
(57,9%, OB 2009)

Nose: very ‘deep’ smoke, hints of burnt stuff. Some iodine, but initially less round and fresh than the 2006 version. It’s only after a few minutes that vanilla shows through with hints of chocolate, tobacco and apples. Some gypsum. More straightforward than the 2006. Mouth: again a strong base of peat smoke, burnt grass and roasted coffee beans. Very masculine. Not much fruit although there are hints of pear candy and almonds. Some sugared lemon juice. Vanilla. Spicy but not as salty as the 2006. Finish: smokey, not too long with the sweet peat having the last word.

This one needs some time, otherwise there’s not much else than peat smoke. Young, sharp and expressive. A small concern though: it seems Lagavulin is moving towards heavier peat, as clearly seen in recent Ardbegs or the Laphroaig 10yo CS as well. It’s a general trend, which makes it very Islay but also less complex and sophisticated than before. For me personally, that’s a small downturn.
Around € 70.

Score: 86/100

ps/ After I roughly rinsed my glasses with some water, the 2006 glass didn’t show much smoke. The 2009 on the other hand was pretty useless until it was cleaned thoroughly. I guess it shows the difference.

Inspite of it’s fame, Lagavulin releases few expressions. Until 1989, Lagavulin was always bottled at 12 years. Nowadays, the 16 year-old is the only standard bottling. There’s also a 12 year-old and a double matured Distiller’s Edition which both change each year. Over the years, there have been a few limited editions as well (21y, 25y, 30y, Feis Ile single casks) but that’s about it. If you’re a collector, Lagavulin is a relatively easy distillery…

Lagavulin 16 years is the reason why many of us became interested in single malts in the first place. Like most Islay whiskies, it’s peated but in a different way than Laphroaig or Ardbeg. Lagavulin is – in my opinion – one of the warmer whiskies around. Apparently Johnny Depp (who doesn’t drink alcohol) sometimes orders a dram of this, just to sniff it.

Lagavulin 16 yo (43%, OB 2007)

Nose: I’ve always found this to be the most complex and refined nose of the standard Islay malts. Very impressive, a bit rough yet balanced. Peaty with some iodine, antiseptic and fishy notes.  Gentle fruitiness (oranges). Earth. Pepper. Oil. Lapsang Souchong. Let’s just say it’s really rich. Mouth: evolves over time. Oily, grassy, smoky (yesterday’s ash tray), sweet and salty. A dynamic palate indeed. Hints of seaweed and liquorice. Finish: drier, on smoked bacon and walnuts. Some wood. Hints of shoe polish. Very long.

Totally lives up to its name! Every whisky enthusiast should have a bottle of this in his collection. Around € 45.

Score: 89/100.

The label on this bottle contains a misprint. It says “distilled: January 1979 – bottled: May 1988” but also “19 years old”. It was released in 1998 instead of 1988.

Lagavulin 19y 1979 (46%, Murray McDavid 1998, cask #MM8593, bourbon cask)

Nose: dense peat, but also rather sweet and perfumy at first. Vanilla. After that, more typical notes of diesel oil and seaweed. Camphor. Some lemon. Hazelnut. Interesting but not overly complex. Mouth: sweet attack, fruitier than official Lagavulins. Soon becoming grassier and drier, with the peat taking over. Not overly powerful. Some cardamom. Rather bitter towards the finish (cloves, grapefruit). Finish: medium long, peaty and smokey. Iodine. Slightly metallic. The bitterness is still here. A pinch of salt.

Good nose, but the taste lacks some complexity. I like most of the original Lagavulin expressions better.

Not available any more. Score: 83/100

I’m wondering whether Lagavulin used a Pedro Ximénez or another type of sherry cask for the maturation. They only mention ‘European oak ex-sherry cask’ so I think it’s not a seasoned cask, but no information about the actual type of sherry.

Lagavulin 1994 (52,7%, OB for Feis Ile 2010, sherry cask #3210, 528 btl.)

Nose: almost the same as the ‘Distillery only’ bottling. Sweet and peaty. Maybe a few more coastal notes (boat rope, seaweed). The fruit is present, but it’s more complex and more on dried fruits and less focused on apple juice, I would say. A bit more toffee as well. White chocolate. At first I wasn’t too sure, but after a while I preferred this one. Differences are small though, and I think the NAS could be a bit younger as well. Mouth: very creamy again. Dark chocolate. More espresso notes than in the NAS. Roasted nuts. Slightly bitter / zesty as well. A very broad spectrum of flavours. Finish: long, with chocolate and toasted bread.

On the nose, the Feis Ile bottling has a slight advance over the NAS version, but on the palate I prefer the roundness of the NAS version (which is closer to a regular DE). The Feis Ile bottling is certainly more complex though. Original price: € 90.

Score: 91/100

None of the Elements of Islay have an age statement.

Lagavulin Lg1 (56,8%, Specialty Drinks 2009, 50 cl)

Nose: gristy and earthy. All kinds of wet things: wet leaves, soaked cereals, rubber boots… Sooty with tar and some nice bread crust. Salted smoked fish. When you dig a little further, there’s also a sweet background note (ripe banana?). Mouth: big! Nice development from the initial peat blast and coal smoke towards berries and tropical fruits. The sweetness keeps growing. Still quite grainy. Also a medicinal side and farmy notes that seem bigger than in official Lagavulin. Finish: very long on earthy peat, liquorice and pepper.

Official Lagavulins are 12 or 16 years old – it’s easy to tell this one is younger. I don’t think that’s a downside, because the youngish fruity notes work well here. Around € 45.

Score: 88/100