Lagavulin 1991 Distillers Edition

The Lagavulin DE has always been a very embarrassing whisky to me, especially the 1979 and other early versions (but not the 1984) because it’s exactly the kind of bottling I should not like: a wonderful malt whisky ‘quickly finished’ in unlikely so-called wine casks to offer… what? Range-widening? Alas, I always found these DEs to be wonderful whiskies. Sugar, how disappointing!

Colour: gold/amber.

Nose: totally superb! An amazing rubber boots/bitter oranges combo, evolving towards more coastal elements (dried kelp, brine), old leather, camphor, tobacco and orange marmalade, then beef stock, pu-erh tea and soot. Disappointingly brilliant ;-).

Mouth: I think it’s not possible that this whisky hasn’t a higher ABV than just 43%. Starts extremely ashy and amazingly kippery and salty, with a lot of tobacco (chewed Habano), gentian spirit, dried ginger and salted liquorice. Develops on the same beautiful aromas and keeps bombarding us with the same ultra-huge ashy smokiness.

Finish: it’s long (maybe not the longest, but still) and still very kippery, with some caramel coming through now. Caramelised kippers?

Comments: the first time I tried this one it was blind and I went for 92 points, but that’s obviously much too high for a finished whisky. Let’s mark it down! SGP:448 - 91 points.

[These tasting notes are reproduced from Serge's website Whiskyfun.com]