I still haven’t gotten my hands on a bottle of the Feis Ile release I was expecting to review this fall. I am referring, of course, to the 2024 Laphroaig Cairdeas. For all I know, it’s been in Minnesota for a while: I just haven’t stopped in at a liquor store for a while—if you’ve seen it around somewhere locally, please drop me a line. In the meantime, here’s a review of a Feis Ile release from ten years ago. You are welcome. This was Lagavulin’s release for 2014. The total release was of 3500 bottles, which tells you a number of casks were involved—as your average sherry butt holds between 475-500 liters. Those casks were all European oak sherry casks and were all filled on January 30, 1995, which would make this whisky 19 years old. When sherry cask Lagavulin is good, it’s really, really good. Such were the 2013 and 2015 Feis Ile releases, both of which I’ve reviewed on the blog (here and here). I’m also remembering the 12 year old Lagavulin for Friends of the Classic Malts, which was also a 1995 distillation and which might also have been from European oak casks (I’m too lazy to go down to the whisky lair and check the label on my last surviving bottle). Anyway, let’s see what this one is like.

Lagavulin 19, 1995 for Feis Ile 2014 (54.7%; European oak sherry butts; from my own bottle)

Nose: A lovely mix of sherry and smoke: rich pipe tobacco, dark chocolate, toffee, apricot, a hint of struck matches. Continues in this general vein. A few drops of water and the fruit expands; some savoury notes too now (beef bouillon).

Palate: Comes in with everything from the nose along with briny sea air and some damp earthy notes. Quite approachable at full strength; good texture. Saltier on subsequent sips and the iodine expands significantly as well. Water pushes the salt back a bit and emphasizes the fruit here as well. After a bit, it gets quite peppery.

Finish: Long. Sweeter at first even as the smoke gets drier; more bitter at the end (burnt rope) and then salt gets the final word. The sweetness, salt and smoke merge beautifully with water and the bitter notes disappear; more iodine again at the end.

Comments: An excellent marriage of peat and sherry. No obvious fireworks here: just quintessential Lagavulin character with no flaws whatsoever. I look forward to seeing how this develops over the next month or so as I slowly drink the bottle down. I’ll try to remember to report back.

Rating: 91 points.