Top 5 Scotch Whisky Alternatives CHEAPER Than Lagavulin 16 Year 

Outstanding video!

Thank you for this!!

Very important and significant points all newbees and seasoned drinks should review. Good job. Thanks.

Excellent choices buddy. Not a huge fan of the Port Charlotte myself but, that's just me. Absolutely great call with the Uigie. Love it. Cheers.

Thank you for saving me a few dollars. I was gonna buy the Lag 16 for Christmas but I'm in love with Ardbeg and seems it's just a better value.

Love your videos bro! ❤ keep em up, Peat Heads Unite!

Nice list. My go-to peated malt is Port Charlotte 10, but with prices skyrocketing, I'm almost as content with $45 Ardbeg 5 or even $35 Scarabus 46%; and $45 Scarabus Batch Strength @57% is definitely worth sampling ✌️

I agree with your take on Laphroaig. I had the Laphroaig 27yo once. It was wicked!

Great video

The closest comparisons to Lagavulin 16 I’ve found are Kilchoman Sanaig and Laphroaig Lore. Both have the peat/sherry combo and both are cheaper than Lagavulin 16 in my market….and I dare say tastier too.

Great list. I have found that many of the Diageo basic bottles do show up at the price clubs at random times. I've been buy Lagavulin 16 at BJs Wholesale Club for $67 for the past 3 months. Last year I found it for $69 at Costco. Definitely worth loading up at those prices. My best recommendation if you can't find it at the price clubs and don't want to wait is try the Lagavulin 8 year. Yes it's half the age but it's also 48% and supposedly non-chill filtered and not colored. It's also about $60. That trade off is worth losing 8 years of age.

Great list and discussion, thank you! In my market (currently Texas, but I also spend a lot of time/money in Massachusetts from work trips & visiting friends) I think Lagavulin 16 is pretty consistently ~$110-$125 USD. For that price or under, I can highly recommend independent bottlings of Ledaig (especially Gordon & MacPhail, Signatory, & Douglas Laing/Old Particular) that might range from 9 YO to 16 YO and are typically 46% abv up to cask strength. I also greatly enjoy the Benromach Peat Smoke in it's various iterations over the years, which have all been non-chillfiltered, generally natural color, and usually from ~8-10 YO, sometimes in just ex-Bourbon casks but also recently several other cask expressions, typically in the $50-$80 USD range.

Ledaig 10 just (and I mean just) shifted price in Chicagoland from $60 to $80. Binny's led the way, no doubt tracking popular reviewers.

Always loved Lagavulin, Jura 10 is a light peated bottle

Lagavulin 8. It is younger obvious, but it is good. (Youth could also be considered as a plus for peat lovers) Also good specs: 48%, non-chillfiltered and it might be uncoloured as well. For me whether I reach for the 8 or the 16 is a mood thing. When I tasted them both I expected to prefer the 8, but the 16 did it also for me.

I am quite new to whisky, so what I am now typing should be taken with a pinch of salt, but are nevertheless my view of today. The peated whisky I have tried are Tallisker Storm, Tallisker Port Ruighe, Ardbeg Ten, Lagavulin 10 Travel Exclusive and the Lagavulin 16. And I am ranking them in this order. The Talliskers I find almost un drinkable (exaggeration but still) because of a clear underlying sharpness and roughness. The Ardbeg and the two Lagavulins are all wonderful and I believe one could change one’s mind depending upon the weather and one’s mood. However considering the two Lagavulins I will probably be choosing the 16 over the 10 every time. So depending upon the mood it might be between the Ardbeg Ten and the Lagavulin 16. I am obviously going to try the Uigeadail in the future. Greetings from Denmark

Scarabus. Basically, it's getting a Caol Ila at $35/750ml. A truly great deal. I talked a friend into making his first buy with a Scarabus. We tasted it together and both decided we're going back for the other two expressions, CS and 10, each still well under the cost of a Lag16. I think we all need to talk about different peat flavors. There are creosote peats, and medicinal peats, and bunker oil peats, and campfire peats. I think I like only the last (think Benromach, of which both the 10 and 15 are cheaper than Lag16), but I'll suffer small doses of the first (which, I believe, is also known as the 'Lapsang tsuchong' flavor note). Then there are the Italian aromatic cheese notes and the sweaty horse blanket (aka 'dirty sweat sox') notes. Those alienate me right off. I keep and recommend PC10 (made with inland peat, by the way), Kilchoman Sanaig (I have yet to sample the other expressions, but I trust they are as advertised by their devotees), Benromach 15, and Westland Peated American Single Malt. Where I'm at, the Benro15 checks in just pennies under the Lag16, while the others hover at or near $80 US.

Bunnahabhain Toiteach A Dha with 20% water added tastes just like Lagavulin 16 to me!

The 16 year has been $90 for at least the last 3 years in my area. Just saw it at $92 about 2 days ago. Love the younger Lagavulins too, so those are easy replacements for it.

Love the journey! I figure the most similar option while saving a bunch of cash would be Saniag. Loch Gorm is usually the same price, if its available. The problem with Lag16 is that its Lag16. For my personal insanity as a "collector" there is value in having a bottle of Lagavulin 16. I shop the NY/NJ/Ct area. Laphroaig and Lagavulin are totally different prices in each state. But lets say my 2018 bottle cost me $79 while today its around $100. Obviously, there are better values but there is only one Lag16. It's just peated whisky and being that my journey is about variety I don't expect I'll ever buy another bottle at 43%. The only Diageo bottle I do buy is the Offerman 11. I find it amusing that some drinkers stick with one bottle over and over again. The same way I find it amusing that people actually spend $150 on Glenlivet 18.

In tx we were getting the kilchoman machir bay cask 21 for like about $80-90 def good shit, Kilkerran heavily peated batch 8 and Kilkerran 8yr bourbon cask strength would be my #1s plus ptice was below $80

All 3 of my favorite Scotch Whisky has deteriorated in Quality over the last 10 years. They are The Ardbeg 10, The Lagavulin 16, and the Balvenie 12 double Wood. I think it's a purposely done move - Just like Shampoo and Cereal have very quietly reduced volume over the years without telling us!!

Prices you're talking about are hilarious. 😂😂😂 Laphroaig quarter cask is around 35€. Last time I bought Laphroaig 10,it was under 30€(recently).

Also the Laphroaig 10 year can be bought for £30 and is consistently a great drink over the years.

I pretty much don't buy anything under 45% abv any more, it's usually a let down, with that I love all the Ardbeg core range stuff, Ugi and Corry are at constant battle for my favorite, also love Port Charlotte 10, and Laphroiag 10, Just picked up Laphroaig Lore, and a Talisker 10 which I am really enjoying. Sadly here in the state if NC there are many I would love to try but the state abc just don't get.

I recently bought Lagavulin 16 for 67€. Right now,it's 72€.

Find my lot of bin at Costco for 70 some dollars so I don’t really see the point of getting a much younger whiskey for similar taste as Lagavulin

I’d rather have a bottle of Ledaig 18 than Lagavulin 16 any day. The prices are about the same now that Lagavulin 16 is absurdly inflated, but even if it cost much more I’d still buy the Ledaig. If budget was an issue then Kilchoman Sanaig or Loch Gorm. Edit: Actually, I completely forgot one big contender but I’m not sure if it is still available. In 2021 Diageo released a range of Johnnie Walker Black Regional blends. The lowlands was a blended scotch and a bit meh, the Highlands and Speyside were blended malts and not bad at all, but the Islay blend was a blended malt of Lagavulin and Caol Ila and it was way better than it had any right to be. I preferred it to Lagavulin 16 (!) and at one time it was available here in Australia for the equivalent of US$30. If you ever see it, buy it.

I like every whisky on this list, but it´s pretty much all over the place for my taste. What is a Lagavulin 16? It´s a typical Islay Whiskey with a good amount of peat smoke, with some coastal tanginess, its sherried and it´s mainly due to it´s age subtle and complex (if the bottle is good), filled at 43% abv. My nominees to match this are (sorted by price in my market): Bunnahabhain Toiteach, Kilchoman Sanaig, Laphroaig Sherry Oak, Ardbeg Uigeadail and Ledaig 18 - that would have been a good comparison and a price range from much more affordable alternatives (Toiteach) to much better whiskies (Ledaig 18), while the Uigeadail shows us what a higher abv is good for. I admit the Uigedail doesn´t match at all, if so, your cask strength Kilchoman would have matched as well, but at least the Uigeadail is the one very important classic when it comes to Islay+peat+sherry and therefore i can´t leave him out.

Port Charlotte 10 @50abv, everybody bow down.

I found a place selling this expression for $90, is that a fair price?

Imagine the pretension required to refer to lagavulin 16 as “problematic and watered down”

Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength is chill filtered, where was your source for saying it wasn't? Either way, it's a much better whisky than Lagavulin 16 imo.

lagavulin 8 year old is 2/3 price £48 UK v £69 for 16. Also 48% abv. Very enjoyable whisky.

Different markets are odd aren't they? In Australia there is NO way you are getting a Laphroig 10 CS for less than a Laga 16, often double what a Laga 16 costs here. Uigeadail destroys Lagavulin 16, way better IMO and agree with your pick at number one, but again in Australia the Uigeadail is more expensive than Lagavulin.

Laphroiag 10 is forty percent abv. You are thinking of the ten year old CS which is far more expensive.

Just get the Laga 8

Lag 16 still $75-$80 I'm my area. Caol Ila 12 is $90+ when I can even find it

$85 plus tax in Missouri. Still overpriced. Obviously it’s not bad whiskey but the fundamental quality of the underlying distallate means it should be so much more.

You got to be kidding. Caol Ila12 is at least 20% MORE$$!!!...

Or just buy the Lagavulin 8.

It has risen from £49 to nearly £80 almost overnight.

70 € in Germany

Are you serious???

Laga 16yr is garbage especially when you figure in the price. I've been saying this for 6-7yrs, I'd rather have Ardbeg 10, Laphroaig 10, Kilchoman Sanaig, Talisker 10, Port Askaig 110 and that's just off the top of my head. The last decent bottle of Laga 16 I had was bottled 2013. The 2017 bottle I had was trash that's why I haven't touched it since. Think about it this way, If the 16yr distilate was that good I wouldn't be able to find a bottle for $70-$80 at Costco all the time. A good 16yr is typically $125+. The only people that drink Laga 16yr now are hipsters that think Ron Swanson is cool and think to themselves "See, I can handle peated scotch too" uhhh no... you can't 😂

I think laphroig lore can replace the Ten cs