Head to head · unusually close flavour match
Lagavulin 16 Year Old vs Laphroaig Quarter Cask
These two are not in the same bracket: £282 a litre of pure alcohol for Lagavulin 16 Year Old against £131 for Laphroaig Quarter Cask.
Compiled by WhiskeyCask Editorial · Last verified 2026-07-30
Specifications side by side
| Lagavulin 16 Year Old | Laphroaig Quarter Cask | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Single malt | Single malt |
| Origin | Islay, Scotland | Islay, Scotland |
| Age | 16 years | No age statement |
| Strength | 43% ABV | 48% ABV |
| Cask | Refill American oak, refill European oak | Ex-bourbon barrel, American oak quarter cask |
| Bottle | 700 ml | 700 ml |
| RRP observed | £85 | £44 |
| Per 10cl | £12 | £6.29 |
| Per litre of alcohol | £282 | £131 |
| Chill-filtered | Not stated | Not stated |
What separates them
Both Islay whiskies, from different distilleries.
Lagavulin 16 Year Old states 16 years; Laphroaig Quarter Cask states none.
Cask as each producer describes it: Lagavulin 16 Year Old in refill american oak and refill european oak, Laphroaig Quarter Cask in ex-bourbon barrel and american oak quarter cask.
Neither states chill filtration.
Neither set of specifications is producer-confirmed.
What the price buys
Lagavulin 16 Year Old is £41 dearer a bottle than Laphroaig Quarter Cask.
Strength keeps that ordering: £131 a litre of pure alcohol for Laphroaig Quarter Cask against £282.
Across the 32 bottles we can cost this way, Lagavulin 16 Year Old is 30th cheapest and Laphroaig Quarter Cask 12th cheapest.
Flavour, compared
View as table
| Axis | Lagavulin 16 Year Old | Laphroaig Quarter Cask |
|---|---|---|
| Peaty | 8 | 9 |
| Sweet | 4 | 4 |
| Fruity | 3 | 3 |
| Spicy | 4 | 6 |
| Woody | 6 | 6 |
| Sherried | 3 | 1 |
| Cereal | 4 | 4 |
| Oily | 8 | 8 |
No axis reaches the 3-point gap we call meaningful. Widest is spicy, 4 against 6.
Identical on sweet, fruity, woody, cereal and oily.
Each bottle in its own right
Lagavulin 16 Year Old
Sweet peat smoke wrapped in dried fruit and iodine. The softest of the big Islays.
Full record →Laphroaig Quarter Cask
Laphroaig with the volume up — more oak, more sweetness, considerably more grip at 48%.
Double matured: standard ex-bourbon barrels, then re-racked into smaller quarter casks whose greater wood-to-spirit surface area speeds maturation. Laphroaig publishes no ABV, and one UK retailer lists 41.4% — that is a data error; 48% is confirmed by two independent retailers.
Full record →No overlap in what we list them for: Lagavulin 16 Year Old for after dinner and gift for a peat drinker, Laphroaig Quarter Cask for value at 48% and peat lovers.
Where these specifications come from
Producer and retailer pages for Lagavulin 16 Year Old and Laphroaig Quarter Cask: malts.com, laphroaig.com. Figures are what those pages published when we last checked them, on 2026-07-30.