Scotch Recommendation: Lagavulin 16

For the past few weeks, a friend of mine has been raving a single malt scotch that I “just had to try.” I am by no means a connoisseur when it comes to Scotch, but I do enjoy a fine glass of single malt from time to time. I’ve done the various Scotch/Shiskey blends like Johnnie Walker Red or Black. I’ve done The Macallan 12,which is my regular drink of choice, and recently after a few different recommendations have been enjoying Oban 14, which said friend just picked me up a bottle of because he “got a good deal.” Before my wedding my sister’s boyfriend aka the resident family lush,even let me try Balvenie, which tasted like lighter fluid. Though recently I have been quite content with the Oban, last night everything changed.

After my buddy gave me the Oban, I felt like it was only right to pick him up a bottle of what he has been craving. Day after day I watch him run the proverbial gamut of local liquor stores and websites, hoping to find a deal on Lagavulin 16 which normally goes for about $85. On a whim, I tried Warehouse Wine and Spirits on Broadway in downtown Manhattan, and was pleased to find a bottle for $47.99. Score.

Now my friend tends to get fixated on the idea of various food and beverages being great. Though he is usually right, I still tend to take into account all of the times when he was basically just talking shit to hear his own voice, which makes me a tad skeptical when I hear a claim like “Oh my Gd, this is the most delicious Scotch ever
!” Well my friend, as we say in the South “YOU AIN’T NEVA LIED!”

I was happy to find this deal on the Scotch, specifically because the wife and I had plans to meet him and his girlfriend for dinner at our favorite house of glutton “La Fusta.” After presenting him with the bottle, his eyes lit up like Ralphie in “A Christmas Story,” when he finally received his Red Ryder B.B. gun. After dinner, he commanded me to wait while he ran upstairs to pour me a small taste of the beverage, and even gave me a few small ice chips because he knows that’s how I like my Scotch (what a good friend).

From the first sip, I was literally blown away. I don’t know enough about Scotch to describe the taste like a true gentleman, but somehow I could sense all of what I was supposed to taste. There was a delicious aroma of smokiness that I had never tasted in a Scotch before. I had always heard people describe the taste as “peaty,” and I could actually taste what that was. The best way I can describe it is that it was as if I took a bite of smoked Gouda, then took a sip of Scotch, and the Gouda rounded out any and everything that would be negative about alcohol in general. There was also no burn in the finish of the Scotch. Crappy alcohol tastes like, well, alcohol, and there’s nothing special or interesting about that. I could appreciate that the distillery that made the Lagavulin (which comes from the island of Islay in Scotland) did all of these things in the distillary process, for literally half of my life, just to cause these specific sensations on my pallet.  Now that is special.

I’m sure that there are 1000 more Scotches that I will try over time, and I’m bound to find one that’s better.  But for now, I’ve got to say that this is the best I’ve ever had, and I definitely recommend that any Scotch fans out there try a bottle (and that Lagavulin supply me with free Scotch for promoting their product).