Been waiting to post this for a week....(Lagavulin notes)

[MalkavianX]

So about a week ago I decided to gift myself with a bottle of Lagavulin 16 years (happy birthday to me!) ---since then, the weather here has sucked in the evenings, freak storms and etc, so I haven't had a chance to camp out on the porch with a cigar and a pour to take notes about it....finally, the weather cleared, so here's what i wrote down (pretty verbatim)

Color: Amber, somewhere between applejuice and pancake syrup

Nose: Briny w/ sweet undertones and spirits. Smoke apparent whiffing from bottle but not so much in the glass

Palate: Woodsmoke up front w/ slight balancing sweetness followed by grainy peat (munch on peated malt for you brewers) and brine. Peat and brine extend through to a dry finish with hints of seaweed and medicine; occasional whiffs of aldehydes.

Notes: Highly complex, of the scotchs I've had thus far definitely this has the most individual components I'm capable of discerning. Medicinal and aldehyde notes slightly offputting, as the aldehydes remind me distinctly of biology dissections (ah, the pains of having vivid scent associations)

Overall, I could see this being a standby for me. Had it this evening with a Torano 1916, interesting combination that was, a light creamy cigar with a dusky smoky whisky. I can't immediately think of a vitola that would have similar characteristics, so I went with moderate contrast. The only Islays I've had thus far were McClellands (which is another distillery, I forget which, but a younger bottling that had nowhere near this complexity) and Ledaig (which struck me as far and away a very mildly peated malt) so I can't really say how this stacks up. Once I get my mitts on a bottle of Ardbeg and maybe Bruichladdich I'll be able to say better the style of Islay I prefer.