Lagavulin 8, 200th Anniversary, 46% abv.
This is a revisit. To celebrate their 200th anniversary, Lagavulin released a special 8 year scotch based on an event that happened over 100 years ago. Back in the 1880's, Alfred Barnard, a famous Victorian whisky writer, basically went distillery hopping and ended up sampling an 8 year old on his visit to Lagavulin. After tasting it, he wrote the 8 year old was “exceptionally fine.” Suposedly it was that moment when Lagavulin stepped into the spotlight and became a highly desired scotch. The 200th anniversary bottling is a re-creation of that infamous scotch.
Nose: light smoke, very grassy, malty, leaning more towards purple grapes. When my nose is at a distance, I get vanilla and green grapes, almost like a light perfume.
Palate: oily, some body in there, initial palate is light and sweet, like super light fabric softener, mid palate has sweet smoke come out, back palate has a sour bitterness with some peat smoke evident, extremely burnt toast. Not getting that presence of wood I got in a previous tasting.
Finish: short, Laga wooden fruit smoke feel.
Not bad, but lighter than the other Lagas I've had before. Still think the 12s and 16 are better. Interestingly, on this revisit, I gave it the same grade as before.
Grade: C+
Whiskyanalysis.com, 8.87 ± 0.25 on 20 reviews
Whiskyfun.com, Serge, sgp:358, 90 points
Scotchwhisky, Dave Broom, 90 points
Whisky advocate, Dave Broom, 88 points
Whiskynotes, Ruben Luyten, 88/100
LA whiskey society, B- from 4 reviews
Image courtesy of Eric Yee.
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