Lagavulin 12 YO (Special Releases 2020)

Lagavulin 12 YO (Special Releases 2020), 56.4 %

The prices of the Special Releases is always a point of discussion. Here I have one of the “cheapest” bottlings in Diageo’s Special Releases 2020.

The Lagavulin 12 YO (Special Releases 2020) was distilled in 2007, and matured in refill hogsheads and butts.

You can buy the Lagavulin 12 YO (Special Releases 2020) in Norway starting Friday November 6 at NOK 1400 (12314801). It is already available to buy in the UK at around GBP 125.

Nose: Classic Lagavulin, and that is a positive thing in my book. Smoked sausages, smoky bacon, and the wind swept beaches of Islay. Iodine, brine, and the crust of artisan bread. It is sweet and almost earthy. Heavy and light at the same time. Ripe orchard fruits as well as hints of dried fruits. With time I get waves of alternately lighter and darker notes. So well-balanced and thoroughly integrated alcohol.

Taste: Full of body and everything you’d ever want from a young-ish peated whisky. Full on sweet peat, dark, dark chocolate and baskets full of fruits thrown on a massive bonfire on a Kildalton beach. Earthy, smoky bacon.

Finish: Medium long finish, but that’s plenty in this case. The volume is dialed all the way up to 11. Earthy fruitiness, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, iodine, sea salt, soot, ashes and driftwood bonfire smoke.

Comment: Hot damn! Never mind the Lagavulin 16 YO, go for this gem instead!

Score 91/100

Sláinte!
-Thomas