Lagavulin 16 - bum batch?

[whiskeyman5]

I just bought a bottle of Lagavulin 16 and thought, what the hell, I'll get a Pedro too. The regular 16 tastes mild - kind of like Talisker 10. The other one is bloody fantastic. Kind of like what I expected the regular one to taste like. What's up?

[Elagabalus]

I also prefer the Lagavulin Distiller's edition, to the standard Lag 16. You are right it is bloody delicious.

One of my alltime favs so far.

[borgom]

Hi whiskeyman5, can you post the bottle code?
I've recently opened a 2008 bottle which is much lighter/milder than any bottle i've opened previously so I'd be interested if this has been your experience too.

[kallaskander]

Hi there,

the following is not about Lagavulin but the thread over at

http://www.maltadvocate.com/what-does-john-know.asp

"Is every whisky great?"

fits this discussion.

Here an interesting quote:

John Hansell Says:
October 27th, 2008 at 12:42 pm

Kallaskander, yes, I agree with you that a lot of the whiskey released today is marketing-driven (i.e., the marketing people are telling the distillers what to make and how much to make).

On more than one occassion, I have had a distiller tell me that he can't produce the amount of whisky the marketing department wants and maintain the quality of the product. One went as far as telling me (off the record, of course) to get a bottle of the first batch, because the batches after that won't be as good.

Unquote.

It is possible with every successful whisky today that the newer bottlings or some batches are very different from the whiskies we used to know.

Greetings
kallaskander

[Reggaeblues]

A bar I play 3 - 4 times a year always serves me a Lagavulin 16 on the house. Last saturdays;s was DEFINITELY "thinner" than the last...Whilst still recognisably Lagavulin, it lacked the "oomph" one expects from this dram - one of my favourites as it happens. The one I have open at home is, I believe, a 2006, and better than what I had on Saturday, but not as good as some drams I've had out and about in the last year...

So you guys ain't crazy! Many "OBs" are variable, but of late it would seem that Lag is more so.

To prove it, the 2007 12 year old "special release" I just opened is the best I've tasted of this line!