Released in 2013 as part of the Diageo Special Releases, Lagavulin 37 was distilled in 1976 and matured in refill American oak hogsheads — an unusual choice for Lagavulin, which more commonly turns to sherry wood for its older bottlings. Roughly 1,868 bottles were produced.
1976 was a quiet year for Lagavulin, then a blend component owned by SMD (Scottish Malt Distillers), the malt arm of DCL. The casks that survived to 2013 had spent nearly four decades in the dunnage warehouses by the sea, losing strength and volume to the angels' share but gaining a rare delicacy that very old island whiskies sometimes achieve.
What is remarkable about this bottling — and what reviewers at the time noted — is how little of the heavy, tarry Lagavulin character remains. The peat is a memory rather than a presence; what dominates instead is the wood itself, and the fruit that long contact with refill oak draws out of the spirit. It is more in the manner of an old Highland malt than a young Islay.
It was never an everyday whisky and is now an auction-house piece. As a record of what Lagavulin spirit can become if left undisturbed for nearly forty years, however, it is worth knowing about.
