Whisky : Lagavulin 18 Year Fèis Ìle 2018

Country/Region : Scotland/Islay

ABV : 53.9%

Cask : Refill American Oak, Rejuvenated American Oak, Bodega European Oak Butts

Age : 18 Years

Nose : Salt, fruit, and asphalt.  Salty ocean breezes, limoncello, and a freshly paved parking lot all came to mind right away.  Tropical fruits faded into beach sand and sea shells as a minerality arrived with the smoke from a distant barbecue.  Fruity sorbet of pineapple and grapefruit at a beach park.  The wife added in “the underside of a boat.”

Palate : Medium bodied with a lovely soft citrus, salt, and barbecue smoke.  Salty air and the smoke off a freshly lit bed of coals mingled with dried palm fronds and coconut husks.  A lovely salty undercurrent road waves of shoreline beach-park detritus and left the impression of smoked salt and mellow grassy herbs.

Finish :  Lingering tropical citrus and smoked salt.

Score : 7

Mental Image : Beachside BBQ under the Coco Palms.

Notes : I saved this dram for quite a while.  It kept coming up to the front of my queue of things to try and then I would push it back waiting for a more special occasion.  At the time of initial reviewing I was waist deep grading student exams and essays and so it seemed the perfect time for a something special to help pull me through the long hours of marking up student work on the computer.

This was just about everything you could want in a well-aged cask strength Lagavulin.  I would offer that it bore a closer resemblance in terms of overall profile to the typical 12 Year Special Release than it does the 16 Year.  While I know there were sherry casks used for this edition, they really hung in the background and if someone told me this was just refill bourbon hogsheads I would have believed it.

Overall, this was a solid Lagavulin with tons of delicious soft coastal notes.  The wife was less impressed, though she did enjoy it, she reckoned it was maybe a bit too subtle and soft for her taste.  She described it as less a beachside BBQ than the memory of the BBQ while eating leftovers the next day— still a fun time, but not the same as actually being there.  This was a fine dram, but considering the bounty on Fèis Ìle bottles, there are better value options out there— the annual 12 Year Special Release stands out as a good one.

Image Credit : Global Whisky Auctions