Last year, the Lagavulin Distillery celebrated its bicentennial–the distillery was officially licensed in 1816 (although there is considerable evidence to suggest that there was distilling on the site well before that). As part of the celebration, parent firm Diageo launched several special releases, including the usual annual release of a 12 year old, a stratospherically priced 25 year old, and this appealing little 8 year old, weighing in at half the age of the most widely known and commonly available expression.
The reasoning for the 8 year old release lies deep in whisky arcana. One of the earliest whisky writers, Alfred Barnard, undertook to visit as many distilleries in the United Kingdom as possible (as he did this in the later 19th century, his survey included what would presently be the Republic of Ireland). The result was a sizable tome entitled The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom, still often referenced to this very day. In his discussion of Lagavulin, he mentions having a very favorable impression of an 8 year old version of the spirit–hence the decision to feature an 8 year old special release.
The whisky itself is quite reasonably priced and tasty, although it doesn’t quite measure up to the spectacular 16 year old. My thoughts:
Nose: Very salty, but also metallic–like the inside of a tin can that held tomato sauce. Peaty. Mesquite smoke and charred wood; soot. Underneath, fresh and mossy.
Body: On the light side, and a bit chalky.
Palate: Very smoky, but also fresh herbs–fresh basil, perhaps? Mildly metallic, and again, salt and tomato paste. Wonderfully sooty, in a savory sort of way. Soy sauce. Delicious, with a lovely sweet kick underneath like melon syrup.
Finish: Drying, metallic and sooty–charred wood.
Price: Right now it is still widely available for $50-75. As we move away from the release date, that will probably change for the worse.
Availability: Specialty liquor stores in larger markets and, of course, Whisky Exchange and Master of Malt.
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