Single Malt Diageo Special Release - Fireside Tales 12YO (((Bottled 2024)))
⏳ Drinking Window
As a high-proof, cask-strength single malt Scotch whisky, this bottling is ready to be enjoyed immediately upon release and will remain in peak condition indefinitely when stored properly.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
blue cheese, smoked oysters, slow-roasted barbecue beef brisket
✨ Technical Specifications
Lagavulin's 12 Year Old Cask Strength is a legendary cornerstone of Diageo's annual Special Releases, highly anticipated by whisky connoisseurs worldwide. Unlike the classic, mellowed 16 Year Old, the 12 Year Old is bottled at natural cask strength, offering a raw, elemental, and beautifully untamed expression of Islay. The 2024 release, subtitled 'Fireside Tales,' continues this tradition of celebrating the distillery's signature peat smoke, maritime brine, and unexpected sweet undertones. Distilled in Lagavulin's slow, pear-shaped stills on the edge of Lagavulin Bay, the spirit absorbs the rugged, wind-swept character of the Islay coast. Historically, the distillery's site has been a hotbed of distilling activity since at least the 18th century, once home to illicit stills before John Johnston legally established it in 1816. This expression captures that rebellious, fiery spirit, matured in hand-selected oak casks to balance the intense, medicinal peat smoke with notes of charred wood, sea salt, and a surprising, delicate orchard fruit sweetness.
🍾 About the Producer
Perched on the rugged southern coastline of Islay, Lagavulin was officially established in 1816 by John Johnston, formalising centuries of illicit distilling along the sheltered cove beneath Dunyvaig Castle. Operating within an unforgiving maritime microclimate, the distillery draws peaty, mineral-rich process water from the upland Solum Lochs. Production relies on heavily peated barley and exceptionally deliberate methods: lengthy fermentations in larch washbacks precede distillation across four distinctive pear-shaped pot stills. Lagavulin famously executes one of the slowest double distillations in Scotland with wide middle cuts and high fill levels, maximizing copper interaction to sculpt a rich, oily spirit imbued with phenolic depth, smoked lapsang souchong, and iodine. Matured extensively in dunnage warehouses washed by sea spray, the resulting single malt balances pungent maritime brine and sweet oak tannins. Benchmark expressions include the iconic 16 Year Old, the cask-strength 12 Year Old annual releases, and sought-after mature parcels within Diageo's Prima & Ultima collection.