I did not have time – or I did not take the time – to do many tasting notes when The Ladies’ Share visited Islay last week. Some of the whiskies were new to me though, and I could not resist taking some notes.
At Lagavulin Distillery we did a tasting pairing whisky and chocolate. More on that in a later article. The last whisky in the line-up was new to me: Lagavulin Jazz Festival 2016. Of course I did my tasting notes without the chocolate 😉
Lagavulin Jazz Festival 2016 was bottled for the Islay Jazz Festival 2016, hence the name. This is a distillery only bottling – which means you have to visit the distillery to buy one. The price at the distillery is £99. The whisky has been matured in refill and first-fill American oak Bourbon casks. The outturn was 6000 bottles bottled at cask strength 54,5 ABV. This is a NAS (no age statement) whisky.
Very light and a bit sharp on the nose. I found it to be fruity with pears, apples and pineapple. Vanilla gave it a sweetness. The taste was light and medicinal. Some salt and citrus. To me the alcohol was quite obvious on the palate. The finish was metallic and salt. It was very dry. As one of the Ladies put it: “The-day-after-kind-of-dry-when-the-tongue-is-stuck-to-the-palate”. I actually tasted this one with some water, which I seldom do, and it felt a bit better. The water made it more soft as it took some of the alcohol away, but at the same time it became more “splayed”.
When I had finished my tasting notes, I tried the chocolate paired to Jazz. The chocolate was really good, and it made a slight improvement on the whisky.
My score: nose 21/ taste 20 / finish 20 / balance 20 = 81
– Tone
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