Lagavulin 16 Year Old

First review on the first scotch that got me (and it would seem many others here) interested in whisky. Had some conversations with a mate of course as well, and he introduced me to Malt Madness. The combination of the above got me intrigued and somewhat obsessed just a few months ago. (By way of example I was reading early into one Saturday morning to the point where I added four bottles to a local retailer's online store. The next morning I woke up much earlier than usual and was almost waiting for the shop to open.)

Anyway, on to the Lag16. The first experience was at Bar Lafayette in Perth and it was awesome. I had no idea of the batch consistency concept that gets touted around. Had it a few more times out before I finally purchased a bottle myself. This was about two weeks ago and I'm sad to report that there only about a third of the bottle left.

I had high expectations upon opening the bottle, but the first few days both the nose and palate was tremendously salty. Water and maybe 20 minutes or so would calm it down but it still wasn't the experience that I had remembered it to be. I found that drinking it from a tumbler instead of a flute shaped vessel helped a lot after this initial disappointment. And now this is probably entirely in my mind as I'm sure my taste buds are not that sophisticated but, keeping it out of the box to expose it to some light felt like it helped it release. Eventually, after about 5 to 7 days my impression of it vastly improved as the salt seemed to fade, and the smokey barbeque that I loved so much about it is coming out. Of all the bars I've been to, all have been recent bottlings with the sailship and "Port Ellen" label so I can't compare it to older batches. Having said that, this is still a very very enjoyably dram, and it's no wonder that I'm polishing it off the quickest out of the two others I have open.

Price variations here in Perth is between $85 to $130, which is quite staggering really. At that lower price range, I won't hesitate to have it as a staple on the shelf.

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