Game of Thrones - Lagavulin 9 House Lannister

I liked the show enough, and as a collector, I ended up wanting a bottle from the distilleries I enjoy from which an expression was made despite initially being disinterested. I was skeptical with most expressions being unique to the line (except one, I believe) and figured it might have been better to slap some imagery on a standard release than come up with a bunch of new, temporary expressions. I ended up trying the Cardhu one at a friend’s and was not exactly thrilled, particularly with the bland expression being represented by a dragon. I had to hold onto hope the distilleries I know make good stuff could release something serviceable.

Lagavulin 9 Game of Thrones House Lannister, Islay Single Malt, 46% ABV

Minutia: Classic Diageo lack of cask disclosure, but at least we got an age statement. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn.

Color: Tawny, 1.4.

Nose: Earthy, woody, spicy smoke. Either smoke with those three qualities or maybe it’s just the first three with a bit of smoke, too. Musty banana bread, more like a cabinet where banana bread was rather than as full as smelling the actual loaf. Low potency dark fired Kentucky.

Taste: Woody earth with salt. Smoke in the back and comes up. Less smoke itself, makes itself known with the spiciness, like a smoked cinnamon.

Finish: Classic Lagavulin peat comes in big. Salty. Long.

While I hadn’t been dabbling outside of my preferred peat as I had done several months ago, something about this felt like a return to form, or a return home. This would make a fine regular expression at a price point in line with its age/ABV. I’m glad they had the Game of Thrones line to give them a reason to release this. I feel like if they did a limited 9 year old for no reason it would have seemed strange, and with the 8 being core a 9 doesn’t make much sense. Not sure why they mixed this up with the dragon/Cardhu when this is smoky and that one was uninspiring, and also had gold in the name.

Score: 90

Musical Evocation: Månegarm – “Hemfärd”