Lagavulin - 20 y/o - Feis Ile 2020 - 54%
Photo taken somewhere in Stuttgart
You don't see a Lagavulin that often, which comes with such a high age statement. Due to well known reasons Feis Ile was unfortunately cancelled this year. Even if only available for UK, Diageo yet decided to officially release the festival bottles. Finished in refill Oloroso/PX "seasoned" casks they say. Mind you, seasoned doesn't mean that the sherry was fully matured in the cask. It's young, unmatured sherry that just touched the wood for a few months and is not allowed to be called sherry by law afterwards.
Nose
Hooray, this is fabulous! We are treated with salted lemon cake, manuka honey and butterscotch, infused with drops of iodine and seasoned with fresh herbs like mint, parsley and sage, garnished with fresh seaweed. A typical dessert from the Hebrides we brazenly say, served on a wet wood planket. Lagavulin rarely disappoints! It's fresh, delicate and crystal clean in the same breath, with a distinctive breadiness of the barley shining through.
With water: The medicinal notes subside a bit and make room for more honey and butterscotch such as whiffs of fresh oxygen.
Palate
It's trully a perfectly balanced, smooth and oily dessert, with salted caramel, sweet honey and drops of bitter grapefruit oils. In comparison to the stormy and edgy 12 yo, the 20 years in the refill casks transformed the spirit into dangerously drinkable Lagavulin oil, with all the desired distillery characteristics. The sherry isn't really detectable at this stage.
With water: Interestingly, the grapefruit bitterness became stronger. No claims from our side.
Finish
Long enough to call it a winner, with pure lemon and grapefruit oil plus hints of rubber and new plastics. Pure Lagavuliness. We strictly love it. Period.
Rating
Frankly speaking, we remember the Laga 12 to be more complex than this fellow. What's striking here is the adorable balance, roundness and delicateness of the composition, without losing anything of the distillery's signature. Once again we personally see Lagavulin as the King of Islay, with at the same time being part of the Holy Trinity of Scotch, alongside with Talisker and Springbank.
