An interesting Laga....

A while back, I found this rather interesting bottling through a German whisky retailer.
Although it doesn't say the name of the distillery anywhere on the bottle, I suspected it to be a single cask Lagavulin. There wasn't a great deal of information on it , other than what a few of you had kindly sent in for us.

It had been sitting there, at the back of my cabinet looking slightly forlorn and abandoned, until now that is!!! In preparation of the forthcoming Feis Ile, I thought it high time to crack it open and breathe in the wonderful aromas of Islay. We'll be heading there for the first weekend and i'll certainly be bringing this along, if you fancy a dram!

Taste Still - Vanilla Peat - Lagavulin Single Cask Bottling - Distilled 1994 - Bottled 2007- 56.8%

Nose: The vanilla notes coming from the glass are astonishing. From 6 feet away, you can still smell the sweet, aromatic fragrance of sliced vanilla pods, vanilla pipe tobacco plus creamy white chocolate, vintage Star Wars figures (that heady plastic note) and a little Carbolic soap reek.... unmistakably Lagavulin and unmistakably great. It shares similarities to the proprietary 12 yo releases but is just a touch sweeter. Given time in the glass, you'll find cream soda notes emerging and some sweet cereal notes. Just lovely.

Palate: Undiluted- the spirit grabs you with a sweet licorice flavour from the off, coupled with a wonderful silky mouthfeel. More white chocolate comes to the fore, followed by some light summer fruit (strawberries) and vanilla ice cream. With a dash of water, a banana'y sweetness emerges, similar to those foam sweets you used to get served in your local corner shop. Layers of creaminess then take over the palate and you're left smiling broadly, wanting another mouthful.

Finish: A return of the strawberries, mixed in with the vanilla ice cream, rather like the flavours you'd get from a Cherryade ice cream float.

Overall: I'm so pleased I opened this - the sun is shining today and it has just added another dimension of enjoyment to the day ahead. Great Lagavulin has the ability to lift ones spirits like no other distillery I know (save for a great Rosebank) and i'd rank this one up there with my favourite. A truly wonderful bottling. Scour the German retail sites and you may find another bottle of this, which has been stashed away. That is, unless I get there first.... ;-)

Great Scot! 2 Lags!!

New idea over at Caskstrength... whenever any slightly odd, unusual or rare bottlings come across our paths, we will stick up a few pictures here. Anyone with more information is free to contribute so we can fill in the gaps, so to speak!

Anyway, to kick off, great things often come in pairs- think about John Prescott's legendary '2 Jags'. Here's a pair of fairly unusual Lagavulins for you. 

I recently purchased these out of curiosity and am very keen to get more info about both releases. 

 

OB Lagavulin 12 YO- distilled in 1995 - matured in European Oak-Ltd bottling for Friends of Classic Malts. Bottle no: 09865 -  48%  - 70cl

There was a small debate about this bottling over on Whisky Mag's forum recently, but it still seems unclear how many were made available and what the markets were. This was bought from a German dealer and we're led to believe that it has only been released across mainland Europe. Judging by the bottle number, we'd imagine there's around 10,000 in circulation but we have yet to see any in the UK.  can anyone shed more light on the bottling?? Tasting notes to come.

Taste Still- Vanilla Peat OB- single cask- Distilled 1994- Bottled 2007- No. 1 of a ltd edition of 223 bottles- 56.8% -70cl

This was also recently picked up from a German dealer.  Although technically not labelled as a Laga, there's enough info from the dealer to confirm the contents, although very little on the internet as to the identity of the bottler.  We'd be really interested to receive any info you may have on this bottling, or on Taste Still.  There is a review on Whiskyfun which has helped massively, so thanks to Serge- but does anyone else out there own one, or have tasting notes or more information?