Chapter 11
My first Lagg Whisky
You’re asking us a lot about new distilleries. There is a new one every other Monday (which is great), but they’re not all the same, of course. With our lack of rules and scheme, we will be providing our unbiased opinions, plus some info from the insiders. This is always a useful compass when you don’t know what to try next. We visited some of them already, and had a few more visits already scheduled so…grab your seat fellow travelers!
Today we talk about Lagg Whisky. If you don’t know, they share island and owners with Arran (Lochranza). I will talk more about the distilleries and the terroir in one of my next chapters. Thanks to Mariella Romano and the amazing team at Lagg, we’ve been so lucky to try all their first 3 releases: Batch 1, Batch 2 and Batch 3.
Spoiler alert
Although the names may be suggesting something else, they’re all essentially first releases. Same spirit, same age, matured in a different mix of casks to give us an introduction of what Lagg is about and a hint of what may come next. Flippers and collectors have gone crazy for Batch 1 thinking it would have been the most collectable. It may be, but if you plan to open it one day, my preference doesn’t lay there…
As for all new distilleries, releasing their first products as soon as they can be called whisky (3 years and 1 day), of course the liquid will be and taste young. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It will taste closer to the new make, and that is the distillery fingerprint…future products will have that character embedded no matter what sort of age, casks, abv will be presented to you. So, if you want to have a first indication to whether you’ll love this distillery or not…first releases are always worth trying.
What I personally don’t recommend, is killing your pockets to get any of these at silly auction prices. No matter how good they’ll be, they’re still 3 years old whiskies, and you’re not giving more money to the producers so, what’s the point? If you try these, and you like them, they will release older stuff in the following years and when the value-for-money equation makes more sense for you, you can get a full bottle.
Anyway, enough nonsense from this broken radio. Let the whisky do the talk, shall we? And since we’re so full of originality we will start our wee tasting from…Batch 1 of course!
Batch 1
Batch 1 is a 3 year old matured purely in bourbon barrels and bottled at a generous 50% abv. 10000 bottles have been released and collectors went pretty crazy about it. But how does it taste?
On the Nose: sharp and smokey taste of fermented malt, new make-y as expected, raw new potatoes freshly peeled, smoked scamorza cheese. With a bit of time and water some wax emerges and burnt caramel.
On the Palate: white grapes, barbecued corn on the beach with a bit of butter and salt. Almost a South American barrique tequila palate.
Finish: subtle hints of freshly cut grass, drying hay and lingering ashes
Batch 2
Batch 2 has been matured in Oloroso sherry casks, same age and same number of bottles as Batch 1. (If you’re wondering, “who’s this guy staring at me?”, have a look at this).
On the Nose: for some reason a bit less newmake-y, sweet liquorice (like twisted liquorice wheels or Rotelle for example). Here the peatiness is better balanced for my personal taste, and the cask selection really does a big favour to the spirit.
On the Palate: gingery and spicy arrival, freshly ground peppercorn, prune marmalade in the development, slightly burnt sweet and bitter notes like in grilled onions.
Finish: rusty and coppery, winery, a touch longer than Batch 1.
Batch 3
Last, but not least, batch 3 has been matured in ex-Rioja charred red wine casks. And Leo was already really excited.
On the Nose: crystal ball, liquorice, clove, bbq fire, smokey bbq sauce. With a bit of water, it really gets more and more enjoyable with manuka honey notes emerging on top of barley sugars.
On the Palate: more ginger on arrival, sweet and sour development, with a hint of peppermint and sage which becomes almost eucalyptus reminding me of my colds after football training in the mud back in the days (sweet memories).
Finish: peppery and spicy. Some rosemary, almost chicken marinade (as we do it in italy oil, lemon, garlic).
Overall
Overall, really interesting, promising products, a great introduction to the spirit. Definitely different from a smokey Arran as Machrie Moor used to be. Young of course but promising integrity presentation.
If you can try these, try them. Don’t kill yourself paying crazy auction prices. I would humbly suggest to wait for new releases with a bit more age…looking at what Arran can do, sure they’ll be great.
Probably Batch 2 is my favourite so far. My personal opinion of course. People flocked to batch 1 thinking it would have been the most collectable, but not planning about drinking it perhaps. Somehow this tastes older than 3y…not massively but at least 5-6. I made it swim a bit for my palate. Among the 3 this is the winner and takes the SGS badge!
Drams
and more...
Today's drams
- Lagg inaugural release Batch 1 – 50%
- Lagg inaugural release Batch 2 – 50%
- Lagg inaugural release Batch 3 – 50%