June’s whisky reviews began with a 22 yo Littlemill from a boutique German independent bottler. The second review of a month is of an official release from one of Scotland’s most iconic distilleries, Lagavulin. This is a 16 yo but it’s not the well-known and much-loved standard Lagavulin 16. This is a cask strength 16 yo that was released for Feis Ile, the annual Islay whisky festival, in 2017 (almost exactly eight years ago). And, no, it ‘s not a cask strength version of the regular 16 yo either. This was double-matured in casks that had previously held moscatel, a sweet wine. In case the name sounds familiar in a whisky context, the Caol Ila Distiller’s Edition is also double-matured in moscatel casks. I assume there are a number of these casks lying around in Diageo’s warehouses and so this was probably a convenient way to come up with a Feis Ile release in 2017. (I may be misremembering but I think there may also have been a Diageo special release slate one year that featured malts from iconic distilleries being double matured in the casks used for other distilleries’ Distillers Editions.). Anyway, I’ve had this bottle sitting around for a while and am glad to finally have it open. This review joins my reviews of the 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2020 Lagavulin Feis Ile releases. I have a bottle of the 2016 release on my shelf but I don’t have the 2019—so I’m afraid I’m probably never going to complete that sequence. Anyway, let’s see what this is like.

Lagavulin 16, Feis Ile 2017 (56.1%; double-matured in moscatel casks; from my own bottle)

Nose: No sign of the wine on the first sniff; instead, there’s dry phenolic smoke, salt and some decomposing leaves in the middle distance. No wine on the second, third or fourth sniffs either but there’s some lemon. The smoke picks up some ash as it sits and a vaguely herbal sweet note emerges as well. With time and water it’s a little more rounded at first and there’s a bit of cream. As it sits again, the salt and iodine ramp up once more.

Palate: Comes in as indicated by the nose; a big added earthy burst as I swallow (those leaves plus some damp concrete). Quite approachable at full strength; good texture. No obvious wine here either. More coastal with each sip: the salt persists, the shells from the finish come out earlier, and there’s some kelp as well. More phenolic too as it goes. With water there’s a fair bit of ash and more salt.

Finish: Long. The smoke keeps going and going. Picks up some shells to go with the salt. The expanding phenols continue on the finish as well. As on the palate with time and water.

Comments: This is really quite nice. More reminiscent of the bourbon cask 12 yo cs than of the regular 16 yo. The moscatel casks don’t seem to have added any obvious wine influence; though they may well have subtracted other elements.

Rating: