Lagavulin 16 Years Old (43%)

The 16 Years Old is the flagship Lagavulin and one of the most celebrated whiskies in Scotch, the bottle that defined what elegant peat could be. Chosen as Islay's representative in Diageo's Classic Malts in 1988, it became a runaway success. Lagavulin was built in 1816 beside the bay that gives it its name.

The distillery's heavily peated spirit is distilled slowly through pear-shaped stills, building the depth and weight the 16 is famous for. Matured mostly in ex-Bourbon with some Oloroso, sixteen years draw the smoke into something deep and rounded.

Bottled at 43%. Guaiacol and phenols give the maritime peat and iodine, the Oloroso adding dried fruit, the ex-Bourbon vanilla. Tasting notes take in smoke, a medicinal edge, old wood, a sherried character, dried fruit and a coal-gas note. The icon of Islay peat.