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!

A 14 year old Lagavulin distilled in 1987 and bottled at cask strength in 2001 by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) was founded in Edinburgh in 1983 by a group of friends with a particular passion for whisky. The club selects casks whose bottles are then only available to members. The name of the distillery is not mentioned on the label but each distillery is given a number when the malt is bottled. The first cask selected by the SMWS, for example, was Glenfarclas, and it therefore uses the number 1. The second number refers to the number of bottlings from each distillery. In this case, this is the 17th (.17) Lagavulin (111) to have been bottled by the SMWS. The club was sold to Glenmorangie in 2004 and then to a group of investors in 2016.