Lagavulin 12, 2016, 57.7% abv.

The 15th release of the laga 12 in Diageo's Special Releases.

Nose: light to moderate levels of peat, quite meaty. To the point.

Palate: initial palate is honey, mid palate is cedar wood and peat smoke, back palate is back to honey.

Finish: like my mouth was coated in honey, slight peaty aftertaste on the tongue and in the nose.

Wow, this one is quite sweet, perhaps the sweetest Laga to date for me, very unexpected. Its like drinking peated honey with the viscosity of maple syrup. I'm genuinely shocked. Like some actual OB Port Ellen here. I noticed several reviewers didn't prefer this rendition, perhaps some good open bottle/air time was needed to bring out that intense sweetness? Or maybe my previous Longrow partially muted the peat aspects on this Laga to let the honey shine through? Had this at Bar d.still in Seoul, South Korea.

Grade: B+

Whiskyanalysis.com, 9.12 ± 0.18 on 23 reviews
Whiskyfun.com, Serge, sgp:367, 92 points
Scotchwhisky, Dave Broom, 74 points
Whisky advocate, Gavin Smith, 85 points
Whiskynotes, Ruben Luyten, 86/100

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

🇭🇰 🇺🇸(LA, SF) -> 🇯🇵 (京都, 東京) -> 🇰🇷 (서울, 부산)