Lagavulin – Distillers Edition PX/American Oak (70cl, 43%)

This is Lagavulin Distillers Edition, bottled at 43% in a 70cl bottle. Like earlier releases in the range, it was finished in Pedro Ximenez sherry casks. The sweetness of the sherry sits against a peaty, salty and smoky malt, and the two characters are described as balancing each other, rather like chilli chocolate. The Lagavulin character remains intact. On the nose there is peat and iodine, sour cherry, dried fruit and sweet raisins. The palate brings vanilla, rum, raisin, rich smoke, juicy sherry and hazelnut, and the finish is cocoa, porcini and caramel.