Tasting notes for a 1997 Lagavulin Jazz single cask

Lagavulin has been releasing special bottles for the Islay Jazz Festival for many years now, the first one appearing in 2011. On the menu today, we have the second ever Jazz Festival release. These bottlings were always highly sought after, since they were so much harder to obtain. Many people clear their schedules to travel to the Feis Ile Festival in June, but returning to the island in September was (still is perhaps) more difficult. Summer holidays are over, everybody is back to work, and this festival should therefore be more lowkey. I do not know if this still is the case, but around 10 years ago, you could occasionally still find a Jazz release from the previous years on the shelf in the visitor centre shop.

Already in 2013, the release was no longer a single cask, but a batch. Demand must have been increasing then. Interestingly, the next year there apparently was no release (according to Whiskybase), so they probably had enough leftover from this 2013 release. In 2015 we see a new batch, with 2000 more bottles going up from 1500 in 2013 to 3500 in 2015. For the bicentennial year of 2016, no less than 6000 bottles were released. That remained a standard until the (fantastic) 21 years old was released in 2019, producing 2004 bottles. The last few years we have seen some experimentation going on, with even a Mezcal release, which I reviewed for Maltfascination (and liked very much!).

From my visits to Islay, I remember talking with the former manager of Lagavulin Georgie Crawford about these Lagavulin Jazz releases. This was in 2014 or 2016, I forgot, but in those years the batches were made up from all kinds of leftover casks, mostly varying in age. I promised her never to tell the makeup of the 2015 release, that she told me off the record, but let me say this: it was indeed a hotchpotch of casks being vatted here! Anyway, enough talk, we return to one of the two single cask Jazz releases, and a real treat. Official single cask Lagavulin is rare!

Lagavulin 1997, bottled at 54,5 % abv

Makeup: Refill Sherry Butt #1894 producing 624 bottles for the Islay Jazz Festival of 2012. The whisky was distilled on 7 May 1997 and bottled on 13 June 2012.

General impressions: Sherry and Lagavulin are perhaps the best combination to be found on Islay. Deep, smoky, grassy wood makes this Lagavulin more facing the forest than the sea. Also, this bottles seems to capture the essence of walking in one of the warehouses at Lagavulin. Or maybe even the old malting floors they keep upstairs in one of the old buildings. Dusty, but summery. In the distance some red fruit cries for attention, but the Lagavulin peat is unforgiving. There are some distinct farmy notes in the air too.

The taste is quite dry and leaves a strong, dark chocolate wood imprint on your tongue. You feel inclined to move to the finish, because the alcohol has quite a bite. 

Classic Lagavulin, not all that different from older White Horse 16 years old bottlings, but with even more kick. With water, the whisky turns more brilliant. If you had a cellar under your house, and you would fill it with whisky bottles and a few couches, it would smell like this. Hey, wait, I know a guy who has this. Yeah, this Lagavulin evokes nostalgia.

Conclusion: A Lagavulin at full throttle, ticking all the boxes that cements the deserved reputation of this distillery. On Whiskybase there are quite a few bottles on sale, and the prices even seem reasonable to me. Going to measure my temperature now.

Score: 91 points

Got a question about this whisky? Or do you just want to say something about it? There is a contactform on the bottom of this page!  

Share this on your social media! - and check mine while you're at it :)