Lagavulin 37 Years Old 51% NV

Professional reviews

Serge Valentin (94)

No further gibberish, let's try it. Colour: deep gold. Nose: starts with something fragrant, like some perfumes for men that would include incense and sandalwood, as well as more and more vetiver. Certainly some aniseed and dill as well. Then it's rather citrus and liquorice wood, then vin jaune or manzanilla (yes, fresh walnuts), a side that never stops growing over time. It's actually very restless, it never stops changing, which is both fabulous and a drawback if you want to write tasting notes... Aaargh! Also wee touches of paint thinner (high quality paint thinner, of course), creosote, a new box of cigars, various oils and waxes, touches of turpentine, overripe apples, teak oil... Oh and there, it changes again, becoming much more coastal and almost as smoky as a youngster. Bonfire, oysters and such. Phew, this baby really shakes you off!
With water: no huge changes, let's say it became fresher and a wee notch more medicinal. Lemon juice with a few drops of antiseptic. Oh and vetiver, and sandalwood, and seaweed, and... Here we go again! Mouth (neat): the oak feels a bit (astringency) but only for fraction of a second, because lemons, smokes and especially lapsang-souchong tea are soon to come to the rescue. I think we're really in the world of tea here, it's sharing many similarities with an old pu-erh, the soft kind of woodiness (incense once again, sandalwood, 'sweet' cinnamon), the mild fruitiness around kumquats and dried papayas, the earthy smokiness... Then there's some honeydew, lemon pie, a faint camphory touch, certainly some cough syrup 'as always', some black chocolate, oysters, lemon balm... We're experiencing the same phenomenon as on the nose, it keeps changing. Oh, and there are lovely touches of ripe melon. With water: same development as with the nose, let's keep this as short as possible, we're not writing a (poor) novel, are we! Finish: the oak's back and we're rather on black tea and cocoa powder. Dry aftertaste. Comments: this one is extremely difficult to score, since a. it doesn't stop changing and b. the taster can lose his marks, which is a consequence of a. I certainly did sometimes. So a brilliantly challenging whisky, I'd say, it's sometimes almost like playing chess against Kasparov (I imagine). Phew, I think those have been the longest tasting notes I've ever jotted down, apologies. Please take my score with a grain of salt.

Words of Whisky (94)

BOW (94)