Spring Fresh
In 2018 Lagavulin launched for the third festival an a row and 18 Year Old (for Feis Ile 2019 it was a 19 years old and I presume that trend will continue). I had to admit that those Feis Ile release, the distillery exclusives and mostly the Jazz Festival bottlings are very much to my liking. I wonder if this 18 years old from 2018 is also a winner (when I poured it at my Feis Ile Masterclass in Ghent, it was the winner). It is a vatting of refill hogsheads and sherry butts. I pour from bottle 4.025 of 6.000.

The nose if spring fresh on vanilla, lime and mint, even some banana and pear. Some elderflower. Would that be from the sherry butts? It has a medicinal edge, but not overly much. Soft smoke. Some horse stable and rocky coast. Yes, I can imagine that. It is very good, to say the least, albeit somewhat restraint (for a Lagavulin).

The taste is very good! A touch sweet with a lovely smokiness. Citrus fruit takes charge. Orange liqueur with sugared lime peel. Reminds me somewhat of yoghurt with pieces of fruit, but wrapped in a smoky jacket with green garden herbs. Softer than the standard 16, despite the ABV. The alcohol is perfectly integrated. The sherry is present, but clearly plays second fiddle. Very good, like I said.

The finish is medium long (I would have loved for it to be longer), sooty and oily with lovely peat smoke until the very last moment.

A winner and then some.

The last jazz and last two Feis bottlings could not convince me, but this one is better again.
Beautiful fresh lemon and light coconut notes are succinct for this malt, in addition to the usual Lagavulin notes. No bitter Departures and with a little water, he wins clearly!

Pale gold color, rather young nose and not very marked by the barrels, very lemony, mineral, iodized, smoked salmon, a little austere but rather classy. Mouth powerful, austere too, very iodized and very peppery, mineral and maritime, with ashes, rubber, lemon, long finish on pepper. Very good in his style, it lacks a bit of sherry for my taste.

Color: Straw

Nose: A mellow, nice combination of farmy notes (not just a euphemism for manure as it sometimes is), peat, juicy apple, citrus, and grain. I don't find this particularly medicinal. I suppose it makes sense given the age, but not especially assertive. A little bit of wood spice makes an appearance with continued nosing. Overall, a well-balanced whole with nothing particularly standing out. Instead, I just come away thinking "good nose." Water doesn't really add much.

Taste: Good mouthfeel and not any appreciable heat at a healthy cask strength. The smoke is there on the palate, but it's mild. Again, not especially assertive, but nice. This is distillate-forward despite Diageo's usual elaborations about wood in their special OBs. Not much else really springs to mind here. It's good, but not exceptional.

Finish: Average.

Comments: Very solid whisky. Let's just agree on that first. However, I think it's maybe a tad overrated around here. Normally, with this many votes, any whisky approaching a 90 on WB is a stone-cold winner. I think this is worth having, and I'm glad I purchased it on my sojourn on Islay last year. However, it's only in the middle-of-the-pack in terms of the peaters I own. I have to think this gets inflated a tad both because it's Lagavulin and because it's a Feis Ile bottling. Very good, not great.