Tasting notes by Agnus (WhiskyFun.com) 92/100 points

A pretty scarce early SMWS Lagavulin bottled at a paint-thinning natural strength. Should be fun. I recall the 111.1 being same vintage and similar strength but from a pretty active sherry cask, whereas this one looks almost certain to be refill.

Colour: pale gold.

Nose: grassy, fresh and sooty at first nosing. It feels quite close to some 1988 and 1990s bottlings at similar ages so we’re in familiar territory. A fairly thick and slithery peat with lots of iodine, punchy medicines, seawater and a whole bucket of petrol. What’s impressive is not the power but the restraint; you don’t really feel that vertiginous alcohol. With water: opens superbly with water. Lapsang souchong, dried herbs, seaweed in miso broth, anchovies and a kind of coiling, layered smokiness. Taut and punchy yet also controlled and beautifully structured Lagavulin.

Mouth: superb delivery, like a very early Special Releases 12yo with a little more age and coconut-flecked sweetness. Smoked malt extract, TCP, smoked meats - indeed, just rather smoky all round. Lemon cough syrup, antiseptic and charred white fish over coals. With water: a collision of syrupy medicines, herbal extracts, seawater and rather savoury, umami notes. The overall salinity is increased and there’s this familiar malt vinegar and chip fat morass which once again harks back to an early OB Special Releases 12yo. Only here there’s also green peppercorns in brine and English mustard powder. Finish: long, ashy and full of BBQ embers, fragrant wood smoke, pebbles, ink and some drying tarriness.

Comments: Some aspects could fairly be considered as challenging, but it’s a whisky that commands attention and rewards a little skirmishing. Beneath all this masculine bluster, there’s much beauty to be found. Cleaves very close to some later official releases while still carrying a few echoes of the past. 

SGP: 367 - 92 points.