You're not vulin anyone

Laguvulin 16 Year Scotch (Islay) – If there’s someone in your life who cannot abide the characteristic aromas of Islay whisky, and you wish to remove them from your immediate vicinity, this is an excellent way to begin the expulsion process. Those of us who love those aromas will find an awful lot to love here. Perhaps enough that they come as the expense of non-Islay whisky characteristics. It’s an extreme Scotch, though far from the most extreme I’ve tasted, and that’s both a credit and a deficit. All that said, it’s not my recollection that this particular bottling has been so extreme in the past. Maybe my palate is growing timid in the Westering of my years? (6/11)

Phoaigian slip

Laphroaig 10 Year Scotch Whisky (Islay) – Straightfoward Islay smoke with a brittle, slightly fierce edge. Good stuff. (7/11)

Islay me down to sleep

The MacPhail’s Selected Single Distilleries Collection (Bunnahabhain) 8 Year Scotch (Islay) – Boring. How do you make an Islay whisky boring? Well: exhibit A. Iodine, but only just, with a clammy boredom resting atop an alcoholic nonentity. The most “flavor” of the three from this lineup that I’ve tried, but in service of naught. (10/10)

Caol Channing

Caol Ila (Gordon & MacPhail) “Connoisseur’s Choice” 1982 (Islay) – Sherry casks, 46% alcohol, $150. Peat smoke, iodine, dried meat and the leather that used to enclose it, with exotic flowers and confiture (mostly Mirabelle plum, but there’s Rainer cherry and peach as well). Unbelievably good, and for me the star of the tasting, though a very strong argument could be made for the Glen Grant 1965 as well. (2/08)