If Lagavulin 8 is in your glass, here's the fair question: does a peated Islay this bold really suit a table full of people you're pouring for? It does. Lagavulin 8 sits in the top 4% of bottles for how broadly it's liked. Big smoke, wide welcome.
What it is. Light in colour, but no wimp. The nose heads straight for the shore — mineral, salt, and a sweetness that keeps it fresh and lively. The palate brings menthol, bay laurel, more brine, a hint of malt, and a lift of Parma violet. The peat smoke reads like it's been blown off a kiln into salt-laden air. Breezy the whole way through. An Islay that announces itself and then behaves.
What to pay. Lagavulin 8 is $99 for members at Dan Murphy's this week. It usually sells around that mark, so this is its ordinary standing, not a one-off. A pour at home works out to about $3.73 a standard drink. The same measure taken as part of a pint at the pub, where a pint is about $13, runs closer to $6.28.
What the drinkers around it would pay. Ask the drinkers of the bottles nearest Lagavulin 8 what it's worth to them, each starting from what they lay out for their own bottle, and the answers run from $100 to $142. At $99 for members, this week's price sits right at the foot of that range. And the drinker who marks it down most still puts it at 96% of their own bottle. The rest go higher again.
Three stand-ins, if you want a change.
Port Charlotte 10, usually around $146. Butterscotch and understated sherry, iodine that isn't overwhelming, a smoke that falls between meaty and sweet. To a Lagavulin 8 drinker it gives about 98% of what the Lagavulin 8 does, for 147% of the price. We've seen it from $120 to $146.
Ardbeg 10, usually around $121. Smoked haddock and citrus on the nose, milk chocolate underneath, then full-on hot peat, pipe tobacco and black coffee. To a Lagavulin 8 drinker it gives about 97%, for 122% of the price. We've seen it from $105 to $121.
Ardbeg Wee Beastie, usually around $106. Wood smoke, black pepper and sour lemon up front, then raisins, bacon fat and a touch of vanilla. Peaty, punchy, oily. To a Lagavulin 8 drinker it gives about 96%, for 107% of the price. We've seen it from $90 to $106.
Who it's for. If Lagavulin 8 is already your bottle, nothing here needs to change — $99 for members is where it stands this week, and it earns its keep across a crowd. If you lean darker and sweeter, Port Charlotte 10 will suit you. If you want the classic southern-shore Islay, coffee and tobacco sitting under the peat, Ardbeg 10 is your pour. And if you're after the same shore in a younger, louder form, Wee Beastie gets you there. Four roads to the smoke, and a yes waiting on every one of them.
None recorded.
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