Lagavulin 25 has been issued under the Diageo Special Releases banner on several occasions, notably in 2002 (the bicentenary set), 2008 and 2017. Each release has been drawn from European oak sherry casks filled in the early years of Lagavulin's resurgence as a flagship single malt.
The distillery, founded in 1816 by John Johnston, was for most of its existence a workhorse for blends — particularly White Horse, the brand built by Sir Peter Mackie, who controlled Lagavulin from 1890. It was only in 1988, with its inclusion in United Distillers' Classic Malts of Scotland selection, that Lagavulin became widely known under its own name. Stocks of well-aged whisky from the comparatively quiet 1980s and early 1990s underpin most of the 25 year old releases.
At a quarter century, the famously oily Lagavulin spirit has integrated almost entirely with its sherry wood. The peat is still present — it could hardly be otherwise from a distillery that draws from the Machrie peat bog — but it has become one note among many rather than the defining feature.
These releases are not bargains and they are not pretending to be. They are what they are: small allocations of an old, slow whisky from one of Islay's most celebrated distilleries, bottled at natural strength and meant to be drunk in small measures over an evening.
