A dryish and medicinal smoke, a waft of herbal liquer, chicory, fresh tobacco, savoury and at the same time a liquorice-sweetness comes from thereunder, hessian. Opens up for a long time, lemon, and also sweeter citrus as in kumquats, a delicious and full cough-syrupy smoke, green apple and apple-seed kind of oakiness. Oranges, lemon-salmiak. Almond and hazelnut, a bit of smoked fish, maple syrup. Opens up layer by layer with more water: some chanterelles, a really nice toasted toffee, and smoky fudge, oven baked sweet red apples, liquorice toffee, iodine, phenols, dusty cupboards of an old apothecary, tar. All in a near perfect balance, nothing disturbing, no off-notes at all.

Quite a chalky smoke at first, fisherman's friend lozenges, menthol, salmiak and a drop of butter, celery. Stays lightish and pungent at first, then some alga and mussels, cough syrupy savoury sweetness, umami. Starts to get slowly rounder and more layered. Green and red apples, toffee-malt, oat-cereal-sweetness. Mouth-watering. Campfire smoke, brown sugar, citrus liquorice, more salmiak and a very soft smoke. There is a kind of a sour dryness and a dark smoky sweetness working at the same time. 

Good and long. Luscious liquorice and coal smoke, coughsyrup-malty.

Makes one anxious after the wonders of these festival bottlings. As a lover of the 16/DE OB:s this seems to be the only financiable way to reach the rarified atmospheres of something even better in terms of Laga.

Next to a glass of the OB 16yo it's impossible to miss the likeness in the two. Kind of obvious, but I think it says a nice thing about the consistency of Lagavulin that a randomly picked bottle from a large vatting and these specifically chosen casks can be so close to each other. You'll find the familiar fishing boat of aromas here (seawater, boat tar, smoked fish, iodine and perhaps vague diesel), but everything is really concentrated, much more vivid than in the normal 16.

The base is the familiar 16yo except the slight wateriness is missing and replaced by most excellent mature sherry that gives that beautiful elderly wood vibe. The greatness is emphasized by a sweet component like marmalade made of oranges or tangerines. Not overt sweetness like in the DE. Instead, everything is in balance here. This is drinkable neat, but it's obviously closed up too since a couple spoonfuls of water remove the masking layer of alcohol and put the body together much better. 

Once everything else has passed the mouth is left with bonfire ash.

Phenomenal stuff. How can a malt be so instantly likable?

I do not think water is needed to be honest as the flavours seem to go somewhat so only a few drops maximum but for me it was better neat.

Oranges, smoke, leather and tobacco leaves

Surprisingly sweet, delicate, creamy, the peat appears after a couple of seconds.

Long and lingering with more and more peat coming through

Truly an amazing Lagavulin!