Lagavulin vertically - Ukrainian Whisky Connoisseurs Club #114

That is not the easiest distillery to build vertical tasting, though "Fortes fortuna adjuvat"... 

The whole line-up as follows:

Lagavulin Triple Matured Friends of Classic Malts 48% - 4500 bottles issued, batch of bourbon cask, refill casks and sherry casks. 

Nose: smoked fish and sweet peat, quite fruity and gentle for Lagavulin.

Taste: triple S rules the ball: sea, salt and smoke. Very tasty.  

Finish: long one on liquorice and brine. 

Overall: very nice NAS Lagavulin with accents on fruits ans salt, recommended. 

Score = 21 22 22 22, 87/100!

Lagavulin 08 yo 48% - 20 000 bottles released for distillery 200-th anniversary, though can we still call it a limited release?.. :)  

Nose: quite mashy... Why don't we have this mash in NAS Triple Matured nose? Hints of freshly baked bread. Too young for me. 

Taste: good attack, salt and ashes dominate. 

Finish: medium-long with nice fresh note in the end.

Overall: I didn't like mashy notes, so can't put high score for nose and balance. Some people like it more. 

Score = 19 21 21 20, 81/100!

Lagavulin 12 yo 4-th release (bottled 2004) 58.2% - I hate to tell you, but already 12 years lie between this 4-th release and current one... 

Nose: bread is more obvious here, little bit dusty and grassy, then usual smoke arrives. 

Taste: powerful, develops on salt and sweetness.

Finish: long, briny with waves of sweetness, peat smoke and sea air, quite dry actually.

Overall: does differ from modern 12 yo CS. 

Score = 21 22 23 22, 88/100!

Lagavulin 16 yo (bottled 2016) 43% - everlasting classic for me. 

Nose: more sea and seaweed comparing to previous sample.

Taste: I'd say more complex one involving also fruits, leather, tar, liquorice, smoke and tons of other nuances we all love 16 yo for. 

Finish: long, smoky, salty and peppery. 

Overall: great malt and great bargain. I liked it even more than 12 yo CS 4-th release. 

Score = 22 23 22 22, 89/100!

Lagavulin DE 1997/2013 43% - finished in PX casks as all of you know. 

Nose: lots of sweet sherry and raisins, not so smoky and briny as standard 16 yo, more fruits here. 

Taste: sweeter and PX-ier than 16 yo, less sea and smoke here, but more fruits and chocolate. 

Finish: sweet, fruity and gently smoky. 

Overall: honestly I prefer standard 16 yo (my first single malt to bring me here), some people like DE more, it's a question of personal taste. 

Score = 22.5 22 21.5 22, 88/100!

Lagavulin Islay Jazz Fest 2015 55.4% - 3500 bottles released, tasted this one 2 times already, impressions are the same so I would just copy them:

Nose: bacon, sea, seaweed and different sea eatable stuff served with salt, lemon and pepper.

Taste: sweet, salty and peppery at the same time. I don't know how they do it. Nicely chiselled, would be perfect pairing with such sea stuff as oysters, shrimps or scallops.

Finish: long and salty.

Overall: finish is tad weaker comparing to nose and taste, though it's very good and goes over 90.

Score = 23 23 22 23, 91/100!

Lagavulin 25 yo 1991/2016 51.7% - 8000 bottles released for distillery 200-th anniversary. 

Nose: superb. Not shouting, quite calm and mature, though enormously complex: subtle sweetness, hint of smoke, old leather, black tea, hint of bacon and pepper... You come out of your nice cabinet, pass by your freshly cut lawn and come to a sea shore where sea air unites with subtle smoke from a yesterday's fireplace (feat. Andrey Erofeev). 

Taste: quite dry, more smoke here, hint of lemon, shade of dry sherry, whiffs of leather and tobacco - it's like watching oil painting, just one step farther or closer and you get new impressions. 

Finish: long, smoky, unexpectedly ashy and grassy, touches of grapes, salt sediments on your lips and tongue. 

Overall: great malt!

Score = 24 23 23 23, 93/100!