Lot presentation

Whisky Lagavulin 12 Years Special Release 2023

The wine

A single cask Glentauchers (#11/839) distilled in 1981 and bottled at cask strength in 2011, matured in a wine cask. This bottling was part of the Artist range, created by La Maison du Whisky in 2011. Every year, a team from La Maison du Whisky visits Edradour to select casks from various distilleries from the vaults of Signatory Vintage. These casks are bottled individually at cask strength, without chill filtration or colouring. The range is organized into five-year age brackets, such as Over 5 Year Old and Over 10 Year Old. The labels for the range are produced by a different artist every year. A limited edition of 175 bottles.

About the Producer Lagavulin

Scotland, Isle of Islay. Distillery operational. Owner: Diageo

An iconic malt in the very famous Six Classic Malts range launched in the late 1980s, Lagavulin became, in just a few years, the most popular peated malt in the world. Very quickly, the distillery's entire production, initially reserved for blends such as the famous White Horse blend, was reassigned exclusively to bottlings of the single malt in order to anticipate future international demand. Known until that point in the form of a 12 Year Old expression (one released in the early 1970s in a transparent bottle with a white label, the other released in the 1980s in a green bottle with a cream label), Lagavulin is now released as a 16 year old and has “played solo” for almost a decade. In 1997, a second Classic Malts edition was released, with a statement of vintage and double maturation. It was a Lagavulin 1979 finished in Pedro Ximenez casks that ended the omnipotence of the Lagavulin 16 Year Old, before another 12 year old version was released in 2002, updated to suit the tastes of the day (small batch, bourbon cask, cask strength). Since then, many vintage versions have helped develop the Lagavulin clan, each more sought-after than the next, including those available only at the distillery's visitor centre. It was the 40 year old version, however, released in the Rare Malts Selection in 2016, that became the most coveted, with only five editions released worldwide!

Detailed characteristics