Lagavulin
Nick Offerman was 29 years old before he took his first sip of scotch: a glass of Lagavulin 16 that was given to him by a friend around the same time the up-and-coming actor landed a bit part on an episode of The West Wing that aired shortly before the turn of the millennium.
Around a decade later, he’d open up a drawer inside the office of Ron Swanson on the set of Parks and Recreation and discovered a bottle of the exact same liquid, which just so happened to also have a special place in the heart of writer and producer Michael Schur.
By the time the show came to an end after 125 episodes in 2015, Offerman had ascended to a new level of stardom on the back of a character he’d inhabited to a point where many people still have trouble separating him from the archetypical red-blooded American Man he spent seven seasons portraying—one who shared his real-life love of woodworking, red meat, and, of course, a certain 16-year-old scotch from Scotland’s Islay region.
Offerman was eventually able to leverage that last passion into one of the most organic collaborations you’ll ever encounter when he teamed up with Lagavulin for an 11-year-old limited-edition bottle that first hit shelves in 2019.
That marked the beginning of a relationship that led to the distillery releasing another run that was aged in Guinness casks to impart some delightful chocolate notes—and now, Lagavulin’s “Offerman Edition” has returned for a third act with the debut of what’s been dubbed the “Charred Oak Cask” variant.
The scotch in question is partially inspired by Offerman’s love of red meat, and I was lucky enough to get the chance to try it alongside the actor and the ribeye steak it was designed to pair with earlier this week to see how it measures up to previous releases and the rest of the pack.
Without further ado…
Review: Lagavulin Offerman Edition: Charred Oak Cask 11-Year-Old Scotch
Lagavulin
Virtually every offering in the Lagavulin portfolio is defined by the somewhat polarizing peatiness that defines scotch whisky produced in Islay, and the most recent Offerman Edition is certainly no exception.
If the “Charred Oak Cask” label didn’t tip you off, this release wanted all the smoke. In order to achieve that goal, the distillerly took casks that were formerly home to both scotch and red wine, shaved down the staves, and hit them with a heavy char before transporting the 11-year-old liquid into the barrels and giving it some time to acclimate to its new home.
The end result is everything you’d expect in a bottle of Lagavulin, although a few unique elements stand out. The scotch (which is bottled at 42% ABV), packs a bit more heat than you’ll get in the 16, and there’s a slight dryness imparted by the oak (which seems like its partially derived from the kiss of red wine flavor that lurks beneath the surface) that causes the spiciness to linger on the palate in pleasant contrast to notes of berries, leather, and, of course, peat.
You certainly don’t have to have a steak with every dram, but you could certainly do much, much worse when it comes to a potential food pairing; a glass of this combined with a grilled hunk of beef is the recipe for an incredibly enjoyable meal. I do miss the overt cacao that was present in the Guinness-aged scotch, but I would be very intrigued to see what would happen if they gave those barrels the same treatment at some point in the future.
As a result, I can safely say the Charred Oak Cask is a more than worthy edition to the Lagavulin x Offerman collection—and one you’re probably not going to regret adding to yours if any of what I’ve described sounds like it’s up your alley.