Nick Offerman — a rum guy? For his fourth collab with Lagavulin, Offerman turns to a different island for inspiration, the pop culture icon takes 11 year old standard-issue Lagavulin (aged in ex-bourbon and sherry casks) and finishes it for 8 more months in Caribbean rum casks. It’s an old trick but not one that’s all that popular in Scotland — and especially Islay — but nothing we’ll turn our noses up at. Let’s see what our old pal has on offer this time around.

As expected, the influence of the rum cask tempers the innate smokiness of the whisky, and a clear brown sugar mixed with sesame oil character rises freely from the glass. It builds into an interesting combination of aromas: toasted wood, some chimney soot, and overripe apples, all in a swirl. Almost cookie-like at times, there’s a cinnamon-oatmeal quality that emerges with more time in glass, albeit one which is inevitably laced with touches of sea spray and candle smoke.

Also as expected, this reveals itself on the palate to be as soft as anything I’ve tried in the series, or from Lagavulin, in general. Heavy on the fruit, the whisky showcases more of that ripe, baked apple character, pastry dough, almonds, with a layer of salty seaweed on top of it all. The sweeter qualities build on the tongue, revealing a chewy caramel quality, touched with notes of coconut, bittersweet chocolate, and a whiff of incense.

It’s a whisky that improves — quite a bit — with time in glass, its disparate flavor elements coming into focus nicely as it approaches a soothing finish that sees sustained sweeter qualities continuing to mix with pleasant, lingering smoke, back and forth, back and forth.

Memo to Offerman: Now do a sherry bomb.

92 proof.

A- / $90 / malts.com [BUY IT NOW FROM CASKERS]

Lagavulin 11 Years Old Offerman Edition Caribbean Rum Oak Cask 2024

$90

9

Rating

9.0/10

BUY IT NOW