Lagavulin Distillery, Scotland     founded: 1816 | active
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There's a notable savoury sweetness that comes across as almost a mixture between the 16yo and 12yo official releases. A blend of ham crisps and peat greet you, whilst there's definitely some fruitiness here, but the savoury end of the fruits spectrum: apricots and maybe dates? There was good synergy between the nose, taste and finish so most of the nose was a sign of things to come, but swimming pools stood out here as a unique nosiness.

The peat here is less impactful and seems to be outmuscled but the savoury notes felt on the nose: bacon, ham, herbs and a slight hint of Thai spices. These tasty flavours are also in competition with moth balls and a slight fiery chili that creeps up on you.. but it's balanced with a creamy sweetness - like the Mexican devil throwing crème brûlées at you from behing a cactus. Finally, it had a distinctive fruitiness much like the nose, again in the form of apricots but this time complemented with some (white) wine. Although roughly 15 years old, this cask stregnth bottling had much more in common with the 12yo than the 16yo, and there was a clear path from the New Make to this, which wasn't so obvious in the 16yo.

It was a lingering finish but it wasn't the length that doninated our thoughts, more the flavours. The long sweetness was reminiscent of the 12yo again, but unlike that, there was a slight sourness on the finish here and slightly more of a vanilla creaminess. And to complete its appearance in all 3 sections, apricot popped up again to say hi - LIKE IT WOULD.

Bottle details: Refill sherry butt, date filled: 07/05/97, bottled: 2012, bottle #399, cask #1894.

~£85 (70cl)

WhiskyBase - Lagavulin 1997   |   http://www.whiskybase.com/whiskies.php?merkid

We've always scored out of 10 in our group (see number in red box, below), with scores regularly given across that spectrum. The value out of 100 below is adjusted to the scale most commonly used for whisky reviews, to allow for better comparison.

93 / 100