Lagavulin 12 Year Old Special Releases 2019

Tasting Notes

• Billy Abbott (The Whisky Exchange)

  • Nose

    Sweet green peat and sharp apples – a fire in a damp orchard. Briney edges are balanced by sweet fruity chews and a hint of anise: Fruit Salads with maybe a Blackjack thrown in for good measure. Earthy notes sit underneath with a zing of brine and menthol.

  • Palate

    Very mineral forward – cracked stone and rock pools lead the way. Drying but sweet, with pink shrimp sweets balanced against saucy BBQ smoke, damp earth and peat. Menthol and spice build, with cinnamon fireballs tempered by fruity boiled sweets: lemon lockets and orange lollies.

  • Finish

    Sweet spiced apple and a touch of tar. Bung cloth notes slowly fade.

  • Comment

    It might be the last surviving mainstay of the range, and it slots right back into its niche. Both sweet and more minerally than other years, it shows the punchy side of the spirit that we expect in this yearly release.

• Caroline Roddis, The Whisky Exchange

  • Nose

    Big bouncy smoke, sweet seaweed icecream and candied lemons. Bacon doughnuts covered in maple syrup are there too, alongside banana cream. It’s all cradled in soft TCP.

  • Palate

    Big salt rocks studded along a stick of bacon caramel. Sweet TCP joins vanilla, liquorice and barley sugar along the seam of smoke, then banana notes build.

  • Finish

    Soft and peaty, with those ripe banana notes lingering.

• Tom Ransome-Jones, The Whisky Exchange

  • Nose

    Lemon oil, fresh-cut citrus peel, soot and warming wood smoke. Cosier than the Talisker; more farmyard than cliff-side. Maybe slightly on warm tar – walking past a roofing crew in the summer.

  • Palate

    Fresh green veg. Sooty and very fresh; all treble. Young, fresh wood and spice. Very excitable but lacking in substance.

  • Finish

    Soot, spent fire and citrus.

• Ning Heywood, The Whisky Exchange

  • Nose

    A layer of summer fruits and honey quickly give way to acrid peat smoke and zesty lemons. The smoke leads from here, but there’s a hint of vanilla cautiously peeking through.

  • Palate

    Smoky from the off, there’s more caramel and vanilla on the palate, as well as earthier peat. A spicy vein of ginger and white pepper appears, followed by more rich, sweet caramel. The smoke lingers in the background, like a gently smouldering fire on the beach.

  • Finish

    Sweet and smoky notes of vanilla and peat linger long into the finish.