The 2016 trend in a blog: Happy 210th birthday, Lagavulin Distillery!
The year is 2026, and crazy as it sounds, it means ten years have passed since the famous Lagavulin Distillery on Islay celebrated the bicentennial. No matter how much I love Ardbeg and Laphroaig, who celebrated their 200th just one year earlier, I had to be on Islay when Lagavulin did their celebration. The brand, the distillery, everyone there, it just holds a special place in my heart. Since 2016, many key personnel have moved on, but the feeling remains the same. The love for Lagavulin will never diminish. Iain McArthur aka Pinkie has retired and then Distillery Manager Georgie Crawford moved on, first to Port Ellen, and then to Portintruan Distillery, the new endeavour by the Singh brothers. I wonder how they look back at that wonderful year 2016, now ten years ago already.
All of a sudden at the beginning of this year, it was a trend on social media to look back to the year 2016. Some say, because it was the last year of innocence in the world. But what is that definition? In any case, 2016 was a terrible year indeed, in which we lost all in one go musicians like David Bowie, Prince, George Michael, Leonard Cohen, and actors like Alan Rickman, Gene Wilder and Carrie Fisher. Great sports people like Johan Cruijff and Muhammed Ali turned the corner, and Fidel Castro and Nancy Reagan paid the piper in 2016. These people probably checked out in time, so they did not have to undergo the embarrassment of the American people electing a toddler to the White House. Ah yes, the age of innocence eh?
During the visit to Lagavulin, I was still an active reporter for the Dutch whisky magazine De Kiln, which I had previously headed as editor-in-chief. Some words about the visit ended up on paper. (See me pose with that particular magazine, featuring Pinkie.) My conclusion after all the celebrations was short and sweet: ‘Lagavulin still takes out the fire, but leaves in the warmth’, as it says on the label on every Lagavulin 16 years old.
The bicentennial year was celebrated with an affordable 8 years old release, which also baffled the community, as these were the dark ages of NAS-bottlings. For instance, Ardbeg had celebrated their 200th anniversary with the Perpetuum, a rather unassuming and underwhelming NAS, which just as easily could have been an 8 years old. The Lagavulin 8 got a lot of appreciation, and for the occasion we will also taste this gem again today. To illustrate how the whisky market is cooling down in 2026, I acquired this anniversary edition for around 30 euro on auction.
The Lagavulin celebration kicked off with an amazing tasting on 21 May 2016 with exactly 200 people in attendance. The floor in the hall where the tasting was held still showed signs of a flooding that happened during the night; there had been a torrential rain hours before. The team presented us with a wooden box, with inside all kinds of items connected to the Lagavulin taste and smell, like Lapsang Souchon tea, peated malt, slivers of sherry casks and sea salt. Oysters were served alongside brownies, and we started with the regular 16 years old to warm up the palates. Can you imagine that? Warming up with a single malt that would win every finale of a regular tasting, but here being a starter? Only at Lagavulin!
Distiller Manager at the time was, as mentioned before, Georgie Crawford. She solemnly read the names of her predecessors at the distillery, including the legendary Peter Mackie. She also explained why Lagavulin choose to create the 8 years old. ‘This refers to the visit of whisky journalist Alfred Barnard to Lagavulin. He was presented a sample of an 8 years old, and described it as “exceptionally fine”, which of course, we put on the bottle now.’ The example goes to show that Lagavulin, back in those days, was already worthy of presenting as single malt, not only filling for blends like White Horse. Other whisky in the line-up of the anniversary tasting were the 12 years old Special Releases edition, a 2015 edition of the Jazz Festival release and the one bottle everyone was looking forward to: the Feis Ile 2016. This silky soft expression was an 18 years old, about which whispers went round of the vatting including a cask of 27 years old Lagavulin. The taste was extraordinary. People stood in line for close to four hours, just to be able to buy one of the 6.000 bottles released.
Remembering my visit to the year Lagavulin celebrated the bicentennial, I think of the Full Circle Tour that was presented as part of the festivities. In a van, a small group of enthusiasts was driven around the island, with as guides Georgie and Niall Colthart. The latter is like a live version of Islay Wikipedia, and he told us about the many interesting things you can see in the Islay landscape. You would think focus on solely the distillery is enough, but for the Ileach, any whisky made there has a debt to the island. The tour paid that in full, every single person being an ambassador for Islay and the life on this Hebridean pearl. I will never forget standing at a graveyard near Loch Gruinart, seeing a weirdly “haar”, a local term for fog or mist, rolling over the sea arm. With a Lagavulin in the glass, and blue cheese on a cracker, this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Concluding the day with a tasting by legend Iain “Pinkie” McArthur was just a bonus. He revealed there would be another bicentennial release that year, a special 25 years old, which we wrote tasting notes for here.
Speaking of the 25 years old, the Special Releases expression of 2002 was the finale of the celebratory week inside the walls that used to house the Malt Mill Distillery. Nick Morgan of Diageo fame and Neil Ridley provided some excellent music that night, with the latter playing a guitar intro to Seven Nation Army using a Lagavulin bottle as a slide. Legendary whisky, a party, an extra in the form of a Port Ellen fifth release, well… you get the picture. I see no reason why NOT to repeat the celebrations for the 210th anniversary of Lagavulin this year.
Lagavulin 8 years old, 1816 – 2016 edition, bottled at 48 % abv
First things first: A limited edition of 20.000 bottles with Lagavulin matured in refill American oak casks, for the 200th anniversary of the distillery in 2016.
Upon Sipping: The colour on this is so incredibly light, it is almost like a new make spirit with the edge taken off. Is this how Alfred Barnard experienced the 8 years old Lagavulin when he tasted it in 1887? It prompted him to say it was “exceptionally fine”. The smell coming from the glass is indeed exemplary for pure Islay malt, so chiselled to perfection that it is almost scary. An overdose of liquorice, salty rope, peated lemons and just the lightest whiff of banana. Then it’s back to the salted grass meadow in front of the whitewashed building with those big letters on it.
L-A-G-A-V-U-L-I-N.
With the seriousness of the powerhouse 16 years old in mind, this is like a playful younger sibling, exactly how it is meant to be. On the next sniff, I smell sea water. Like as if you scooped a bowl out of Lagavulin Bay and then let it slowly evaporate in the full sun.
The mouthfeel is light and smooth as silk (milk!) and I have to remind myself this is “just” an 8 years old whisky. An Islay malt even. Should the peat not be blasting out of my ears? Oh, it is there, but it is so well integrated with the liquid that it rest on two pillars. Soft, maritime smoke, and delicate fruits leaning towards lemons, grapefruit and smoked peaches. The finish goes down equally well, with just the slightest hint of ashes and more on liquorice.
Word to the Wise: This Lagavulin 8 years old for the 200th anniversary is perfect in its simplicity. That is the one aspect that I always loved in this young version of one of the best Islay malts out there, maybe even the best malt of all of them. Creating this expression was a masterstroke in 2016, and it still stands proud ten years later.
Score: 90 points.