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| Hello, that is one in all our (nearly) day by day tastings. Santé! |
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July 13, 2021
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A tiny bag of super-young Caol Ila
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We’re approaching our 700th Caol Ila. We’ll attempt to have our a thousandth on location, if the God of whisky lets us dwell lengthy sufficient. Anyway, we’ll have these few at random, as there’s a lot, as all the time…
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Caol Ila 3 yo 2018/2021 (52.1%, The Whisky Jury, quarter cask, cask #Twj-ci03, 152 bottles) 
Their cask numbers make me chortle. Do not we’d like laughter? However boy, three years of maturation, I imply the pot-stills are nonetheless heat and the cask moist… Color: white wine. Nostril: proper. Inexperienced bananas, Roquefort, yoghurt, inexperienced pepper, pepper-and-salt combine, seawater, inexperienced smoke (backyard bonfire), mannequin glue, antiseptic, nail varnish… With water: extra pear, then caraway, aniseed and mint. Clearly a bit, ach, err, har, ‘younger’. Mouth (neat): inexperienced pears, seawater and almond milk, plus pepper and gentian. With water: bubblegum, jelly infants (pear flavour), papaya gum, and an unexpectedly smooth smokiness. Liquorice allsorts and citron liqueur. End: medium, nicely balanced, slightly candy than monstrously peaty. Latex and whelks within the aftertaste. Feedback: generally, toddler peaters react extraordinarily nicely to heavy doses of candy energetic oak. That is one other good instance. Oh and it is a enjoyable bottling.
SGP:646 – 87 factors. |
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Caol Ila 7 yo 2011/2018 (60%, Fadandel, 1st fill Entre-deux-mers, cask #900056, 307 bottles)
To be sincere I did not even know they had been utilizing oak to mature Entre-deux-mers, which is a really reasonably reputed dry white Bordeaux. Then again, it is in all probability been slightly innocent. Color: gold. Nostril: no wine that I can discover at this level, slightly a pristine, clear, younger Caol-Ilaness. Seawater, oysters, smoke, clams, kelp, ashes, a bit fats. With water: iodine and mercurochrome. How anticipated and anticipated. Mouth (neat): typical candy smoky arrival, getting on inexperienced lemons and oysters, with some cigar ashes within the background. With water: very tight, acidic, inexperienced, with some inexperienced oils, maybe even a contact of mezcal. Nothing to not like. Pink grapefruits. End: lengthy, shiny, blade-y. Maybe, certainly, a number of drops of white cognac, or blanche d’armagnac. Feedback: no quibbles, that is superior. Entre-deux-mers you say, okay… By the best way, that is extra proof that CI isn’t any much less ‘peaty’ than its buddies on the south shore of the island.
SGP:557 – 87 factors. |
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Caol Ila 8 yo 2013/2021 (54.2%, Fadandel, 1st fill PX octave end, cask #301321, 66 bottles)
A PX octave end? Ought to I actually do this awful factor? Why not strawberry-flavoured Pringles? Coal-tar-smoked Doritos? Sounds just like the stuff they might promote on EasyJet flights, no? Color: gold. Nostril: the factor is, Caol Ila can deal with something. Butterscotch, rancio, lime juice, raisins, deep-smoked bacon, brine… With water: shiny smoky lemons and seawater. No awful PX that I can detect. Should be me… Mouth (neat): unlikely however good. Dates, Parma ham, pineapples, liquorice, tar, tobacco ashes… This isn’t completely regular however s***w the norms. With water: fairly good, to illustrate a younger Caol Ila with extra fudge and raisins than typical. The PX feels extra as soon as you’ve got diminished this wee child. End: slightly lengthy, candy and raisiny nevertheless it has not misplaced all of its proverbial brightness. Feedback: a really cool wee bottling, getting just a bit stuffy (nicely, candy) in the direction of the aftertaste.
SGP:656 – 85 factors. |
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Caol Ila 10 yo 2010/2021 (57.9%, Single Malts of Scotland, Elixir Distillers, hogshead, cask #319920, 317 bottles) 
Color: petit Chablis ;-). Nostril: ultra-clean, minimal, nearly Japanese, or maybe ‘Bauhaus’ fashion Caol Ila, with nothing displaying besides kippers, oysters, mercurochrome and ‘an ashtray’. With water: crushed chalk, wool, damp magazines. Mouth (neat): ueber-blade-y certainly. Tart, smoky, lemony, chalky, with pink pepper, nicely this one would not forgive. With water: a wee tad sweeter, in any other case comparable. Textbook younger peater of utter, unquestionably prime quality. End: lengthy. As soon as once more, a beautiful blade. Feedback: some extra-points for this plain and utter purity that, certainly, would remind us of one of the best Chablis from a ‘cool’ classic. I agree, there’s Chablis and there is Chablis.
SGP:566 – 88 factors. |
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Caol Ila 12 yo 2008/2021 (54.8%, Fable Whisky, The Ghost Piper of Clanyard Bay, Chapter One, hogshead, cask #309952, 294 bottles)
Boy do I like these labels, even when this very one would slightly look a tad Oaxacan. Is that this mezcal in disguise? It is true that between younger CI and good mezcal, there are bridges; no, actually. Color: white wine. Nostril: completely within the fashion of the Elixir, simply even tighter and extra austere. Flints, chalk, ashes, porridge, iodine, inexperienced lemons, crushed oyster cabinets (that is a very good fertiliser). With water: ultra-tight, grassy, lemony, ashy, smoky, chalky. Mouth (neat): shakes your backbone and hits you proper between your eyes. A tad brutal when unreduced, maybe, and actually very brine-y. Consuming round 100 gherkins in a row. With water: unnegotiable. Extremely-tight. End: identical. Depend your vertebras. Feedback: I am undecided any distillers may go ay farer so far as smoky and tart tightness is worried.
SGP:367 – 89 factors. |
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I might like to discover a 90+ earlier than we name this a tasting session. Oh, I’ve bought an thought…
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Caol Ila 1978/1989 (55%, R.W. Duthie for Samaroli) 
This is among the well-known ‘oval labels’ however naturally, the extraordinary 1968 is essentially the most well-known of them (WF 96). So, this one was distilled shortly after they’d rebuilt, prolonged, and restarted the distillery. Color: gentle white wine. Nostril: naturally, the #1 query is ‘what is the distinction’ between this and the newer ones. The reply is that this is able to be each extra mineral and grassier, and fewer ‘brutally smoky and coastal’. Apart from, you would not fairly find out about what’s solely the consequence of bottle ageing. What’s apparent is that this nostril is extra advanced, with extra lamp oils, polishes, contemporary almonds and pine nuts, ink, gums, linseed oil, different oils, additionally something camphory and ointmenty (I apologise), whereas we would even discover notes of beef grease and mutton suet. Yeah, Belgian French fries. With water: we’re on pine saps and resin and retsina and stuff. Uncooked Islay lambswool. Mouth (neat): amazingly ueber-peated, with a spectacular and surprising natural facet. Loud verbena and previous inexperienced chartreuse. Bang. With water: there, the coastal facet, sardines and anchovies, oysters, samphires, spirulina, then lemons and limes. Then steel polish, ink, wee hints of Brussels sprouts maybe… End: very lengthy, extra on inexperienced citrus. Lime and inexperienced grapefruit. Cough syrup within the aftertaste. Feedback: distinctive younger whisky. Samaroli was a grasp at bottling younger to very younger whisky, letting it mature in glass for a number of a long time, after which simply gorgeous you. That is enjoying with time and with the philosophical facets of whisky… Keep in mind, whisky is TIME (Ed: maintain your horse, S.)
SGP:467 – 94 factors. |
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