Finlaggan Old Reserve Screw Cap 40% NV

Professional reviews

Serge Valentin (88)

Nobody knows if this is really Lagavulin, what’s rather sure is that the bottlers, of Coopers Choice fame, do hold or did hold contracts with Lagavulin (or White Horse, or Diageo's predecessors) and so ‘could’ have bottled Lagavulin under another name. But nothing is dead sure… Anyway, they might have switched to Caol Ila, but perhaps not in 2005, which was rather one or two years before the gold rush. Colour: gold. Nose: that it could be Lagavulin is obvious. It’s got his very peculiar peaty sweetness and the touches of tar and ‘good’ rubber that do hint at the star distillery indeed. And orange cake, praline, earl grey tea, smoky raisins… We’re not even far from the 16, mind you, but of course I could be wrong. Mouth: it’s true that we’re going a wee bit more towards Caol… No, wait, this ought to be Lagavulin. Orange liqueur and strong lapsang plus a drop of brine and pepper liqueur. The fatness behind speaks, and I do not know of many other distilleries that would taste like 45% vol. when bottled at 40% vol. Finish: quite long, a tad saltier. Comments: I wouldn’t stake my life on it, but… Oh and it was an exceptional whisky!

BOW (81)