Caol Ila 11 yo 2008/2019 ‘Reserve Cask’ (48%, Elixir Distillers, Single Malts of Scotland, hogsheads)
This one is part of a recent series of younger malts at 48% by the good folks at Elixir Distillers. Isn’t 48% the new 46%? Or is that just me? Colour: white wine. Nose: it’s a rather gristy and smoky one. Which means close to the raw ingredients with sourdough, carbolic acidity, fermenting wash, lemon juice, a freshly shucked oyster and some tar. Pure, plain and pretty unequivocally Caol Ila. Mouth: extremely salty on arrival. Pure seawater, rock pool, wet seaweed, drops of iodine and malt vinegar. Pickled onions from a chip shop dipped in squid ink. There’s also a rather brittle peat and these typical notes of wood ash and lemon juice. Finish: long, very smoky and getting these wee notes of black olive, hot rubber, wood embers and black pepper. Indeed, gets rather fatter, oilier and heavier in the finish. Comments: Very good. I can see why they would bottle this as a more ‘introductory’ peated single malt. It’s rather simplistic but also direct and everything is in its place rather tidily.
SGP: 357 - 84 points.

Caol Ila 9 yo 2009/2019 (51.8%, North Star Spirits, hogshead / PX finish, 378 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: immediately rather sooty, metallic and with these wee peppery touches of new oak. Smoked varnish, hessian, tar and rather a lot of medical ointments and some leathery meaty notes. Hot putty, camphor and aspirin. With water: a lot more cohesive and interesting with water. Smoked peats, paprika, tar, ointments, smoked white fish and sandalwood. Mouth: you do kind of get this rather hefty impression from the PX, or rather the oak of the PX cask. Which continues with this vibe of smoked green peppercorns and sawdust alongside this smoky varnish aspect and brinier qualities. Some dried seaweed and black olives too. A whisky of two halves in some respects. In time it’s more ashy and with smoked olive oil and salty pasta water. With water: slated butter, mixed dried herbs, coal dust and more smoked paprika and black pepper notes. Finish: long, deeply smoky, earthy, peppery, sooty and with these slightly dirty boiler smoke notes. Comments: I remain uncertain about the influence of the PX here, I’m not sure the marriage of the two rather powerful personalities is entirely a happy one. However, it has its moments, and certainly swims well. It’s true that Mr North Star is a more deft juggler of additional maturations than most.
SGP: 466 - 82 points.

Caol Ila 13 yo 2007/2020 (50.8%, Adelphi, cask #301264, 1st fill oloroso hogshead)
This is another of these new Adelphi bottlings that I’m tasting from the miniature, so no image of the actual bottle yet. Mind you, given it’s Adelphi, I don’t expect it will take too great a leap of imagination to envisage its eventual bottle. Colour: rosewood. Nose: some kind of smoked dark chocolate with sea salt and a huge dollop of bacon jam. Also tar, freshly brewed espresso, kirsch and those burnt raisins from the tops of hot cross buns. A little all over the place but very fun. In time it becomes a little more traditional with these gamey and meaty qualities. Also lots of salty and dark umami broths. Things like Maggi, olive tapenade and mushroom powder. With water: develops very nicely with this dovetailing of smoke, earth, chocolate, coffee, meats and spices. Much more cohesive now and more complex. Mouth: natural tar liqueurs mixed with red fruit jams, bottle aged Jägermeister, herbal cocktail bitters, espresso, salted caramel wafers, squid ink, cinnamon powder and juniper. Smoky, meaty and getting increasingly earthy and spicy. With water:    again very tarry and lots more of these bitter herbal notes like old Fernet Branca. Extremely resinous, sinewy and umami. All manner of cured game meats, wood spices and precious hardwood resins. Finish: good length and once again all on game meats, tar, earth, coffee, bitter chocolate and punchy herbal bitters. Comments: probably quite a divisive bottling. Although, I’m sure some will find it totally to die for. I would be curious to know if it was full term in sherry or a longish finishing? Anyway, I’m not totally sure the balance between Caol Ila and sherry is totally there, but there’s a huge amount of fun to be had along the way. Especially if you bring your pipette and some water.
SGP: 576 - 88 points.

Caol Ila 18 yo 1995/2014 (60%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, #53.201 ‘True love on a pebble beach’, refill sherry butt, 575 bottles)
Colour: pale straw. Nose: quite a departure! Coal smoke, linens, bath salts, crushed seashells, grilled whelks, ink, preserved lemons, smoked limes, olive oil and a rather elegant and thready antiseptic note. Quite beautiful and showing this wonderfully fragile but distinctive coastal quality throughout. With water: still wonderfully coastal and fresh but also slightly farmy now. Sheep wool, dried tarragon, motor oil and aspirin. Mouth: the difference that age brings to these Caol Ilas is always quite striking. This is oilier, deeper and more complex. These rather fat and thick medicinal flavours and textures come first, but also sandalwood smoke, crab meat, natural tar, green herbs, smoked mint and petrol. With water: pretty much pure seawater, petrol and syrupy medicines, all slathered in peat and with this umami core holding everything together. Really excellent! Finish: long, deeply smoky verging on these slightly dirty notes of boiler smoke and rubber fishing wellies (a nod towards Port Ellen in some ways) and various shellfish meats, black pepper and more briny and lemony notes. Comments: Bish. Bash. Bosh. Perfect Caol Ila. It’s to be wondered when you see a strength of 60% at 18 years of age why someone wouldn’t think to keep such a cask till it was 40? But of course cash flow etc. And, then again, this with another 30 years in bottle should be really quite something…
SGP: 467 - 91 points.

Caol Ila 22 yo 1991/2013 (46%, Cadenhead, black dumpy, bourbon, 637 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: this kind of lemony smokiness which I often find in Caol Ila of this age and era. Preserved lemons in brine, lemon and ginger tea, seaweed crackers and then this evolution towards things like smoked oatmeal, dried mint and sheep wool. Also some hints of pollen and slightly funky cider apple. Very good! Mouth: pebbles, flint smoke, lime juice, mercurochrome, iodine droplets, smoked mint leaf, hessian and aspirin. Gets drier and more chiselled over time, moves towards crushed seashells and bath salts, rather mineral and saline. You also have these elegant herbal and pine resin notes. Finish: long, lemony, briny and rather medical with these antiseptic and gauze notes. Comments: A lighter side of Caol Ila but I find this more fragile quality extremely pleasurable and nicely complex. Also rather dangerously gluggable. Burp!
SGP: 456 - 87 points.

Caol Ila 28 yo 1990/2019 (55.3%, OB ‘Feis Ile’, cask #9373, refill bourbon barrel, 180 bottles)
I remember there was quite a fussy queue for this one on the day of release; something to do with the card machine not working… Colour: gold. Nose: we’re in some kind of halfway house between the early 80s style and the mid-90s. A very attractive mix of petrol, tautly structured minerality, pink sea salt, pine cones, sandalwood and more tertiary aromas of hessian, camphor, oily rags and rope. There are wee moments where it could almost be a 1990 Ardbeg with these oily and tarry aspects. I find it quite elegant, subtle and impressively complex. With water: saltier and showing a greater degree of precision and purity now. Also with these meaty notes of pork scratching, frying pancetta and something like smoked olive oil and ink. Mouth: wonderfully intense oiliness. Glisteningly tarry, mentholated, herbal, sooty and showing this almost waxy peaty quality. Some kind of salty, aged mead, heather ales, pine resins, putty, seawater cut with petrol and pickle brine. Beautifully concentrated, textural and direct but never losing this sense of captivating complexity. With water: salty butter with chopped green herbs, anchovy paste, langoustines, fabrics, lanolin, seashells and hints of iodine and herbal mouthwash. Finish: long, limey, lightly ashy and showing hints of raw ingredients like sourdough, smoked cereals and smoky wort. This very lovely briny and lemony aftertaste lingers with notes of smoked teas. Comments: I will say one thing for Diageo, they know how to pick a cask! I love how this one seems to get brighter and more youthful with evolution and water. It also makes sense that they would pick this cask as it seems to showcase multiple Caol Ila eras and personalities rolled into one.
SGP: 467 - 92 points.

Caol Ila 1982/2008 (61.9%, Queen Of The Moorlands ‘Rare Cask Edition XXVI, 60 bottles)
I have very fond memories of visiting David Wood and his great wee wine shop in Leek in the north of England where he sold these bottlings. Not to mention trips to the Earl Grey pub where he and his pals would gather to select the casks for future releases - but that’s another story entirely. That was back in 2006 and feels like a lifetime ago now. It’s funny and very cool that David went on several years later to be distillery manager at Caol Ila. How many industries are there where fandom and enthusiasm can take you on that kind of journey? A worthwhile pause for thought in moments when we find cynicism about whisky overtaking us a little too much. Colour: gold. Nose: deep and brimming with this sense of coiled sinew and power. Wonderfully ‘wet’ notes of algae, frothy kelp, lemon slices in green tea, sandalwood, tar extract, fir liqueur and wisp peat smoke. Things like pickled capers, hessian and fresh grapefruit. Beautiful and deeply evocative. With water: becomes more fragrant. Lovely notes of fresh linens, drifting peat smoke, carbolic soap, wintergreen and various soft medicines. Mouth: hugely powerful! Smoked paprika with dried seaweed, miso, tar, petrol, herbal mouthwash, petroleum jelly, dried tarragon, vapour rubs and iodine. Immense, punchy and wonderfully thick! With water: becomes softer but at the same time far thicker in texture, this sense of mouth-coating oiliness but with gentle flavours of lemon peel, chamomile and green teas, a waxy peatiness and more soft tarry and hessian notes. Finish: long, thickly oily, tarry, peaty and almost greasy with these notes of medical embrocations and smoked cooking oils. Comments: What I think it’s important to remember is how ubiquitous these stocks have been over the years. How many terrific bottlings have come from these vintages of Caol Ila showing this quality? For me, when I think of being on Islay and having fun at the Islay festival, it’s this flavour profile that comes to mind. I would argue these bottlings are still a tad underrated but that’s a good thing as, even now, the prices are still relatively accessible by comparison. I’m sure we will look back one day and realise just how much pleasure and joy these late 70s - early 80s Caol Ilas have been responsible for. And probably for how many whisky journeys they’ve kindled.
SGP: 367 - 92 points.

Caol Ila 37 yo 1982/2019 (56.3%, Kingsbury for Club Qing Hong Kong, cask #700, sherry butt)
Colour: rosewood. Nose: you know you’ve got integration between peat and sherry when you get this very leathery walnut and salty oloroso quality alongside these wonderfully animalistic cured game meats, black tea, anthracite embers, natural tar and camphor. Then all these wee fruits begin to emerge: grapefruit, kumquat, blood orange marmalade and wee spices like star anise and cloves. Beautifully elegant and aromatic while retaining plenty of freshness. With water: gets earthier and meatier. Developing a nice note of Irish coffee, old leather and mothballs. Mouth: what’s most impressive is the power that the sherry itself holds over the distillate. You really feel like you’ve just ingested a hefty mouthful of extremely leathery, walnutty, salty old VORS oloroso that’s dripping with rancio and old wine cellar must. Now, there’s still lots of these game meats, tannic black tea, pin-sharp salinity, smoked mussels and natural tar. Also some more subtle notes of bergamot, black olive tapenade and umami paste. With water: still the sherry dominates with this extremely walnutty, salty and rancio quality. But also notes of salted dark chocolate, miso, tar, iodine, dried kelp, jasmine tea and leather. Quite a few subtle notes of dark fruits such as date syrup and sultanas stewed in brandy. Finish: long and deeply earthy, leathery, salty and riddled with bitter herbal extracts, citrus pith, natural tar, old leather and soot. Comments: quite a fascinating old Caol Ila. Unlike any other, even the few other sherried examples that you can find. The interplay between cask and distillate is an extremely entertaining and rather hypnotic conversation.
SGP: 575 - 91 points.

Caol Ila 1967/1983 (92 US proof, RW Duthie ‘Selected by Narsai M David for Narsai’s Restaurant and Corti Brothers)
92 US proof being equivalent to 46%. Duthie being the export name for Cadenhead at the time and Corti brothers being famous retailers and importers in San Francisco who selected some utterly legendary whiskies in their day. Colour: straw. Nose: I should really have included this one in my soon to be published ‘closed distillery’ session. It’s some distance from post-reconstruction Caol Ila. Fatter, wider and with a lemony profile which is oilier, more opulent and more ‘generous’ - like some kind of smoked limoncello. Also Barbour grease, waxy peat that feels like it’s slapped on in layers with a trowel. Then this kind of  murky green seawater, olive juices and muscular - almost brash - salinity. “Hello, Coastguard? Get me the Anti-Maltoporn brigade pronto!”… Mouth: medicines, seawater, olive oil, peat, tar, iodine, metal polish, new leather, waxed canvass, putty. Just immense and totally flabbergasting whisky. The peat manifests in an almost heart-stoppingly beautiful way which is so wonderfully structured, complex, dynamic and layered that all you can do is follow it down these labyrinthian pathways. Finish: immensely long, deep, rooty, earthy, herbal, citric, waxy, coastal and peaty. Comments: Another total marvel from the old Caol Ila distillery. It really seemed to produce a totally distinct make. Different from any other of its Islay contemporaries at the time. One seemingly defined by fatness of texture, bass-like smokiness and a peat character that seemed to behave like an impossibly obese ballerina. Everything holds together with perfection, even when physics would suggest it should all fall apart.
SGP: 456 - 94 points.

Caol Ila 1968 (58.6%, Gordon & MacPhail ‘CASK’, 1980s)
Not sure when this one was bottled, but most probably around 1986-1988. Colour: deep gold. Nose: hyper clean at first nosing. This kind of rather brutal, ashy smokiness, raw peat, iodine and seawater. Powerful but with a sense of restraint. Then it starts to open with this kind herbal jelly, menthol smokiness, cough medicines, mint tea and lighter notes of salted walnuts, eucalyptus oil and camphor. One of these noses that just keeps evolving and getting louder and more immense with each passing minute. I have to admit, I find this combination of herbs, smoke, salt and peat just utterly destroys me. If this whisky asked for my bank details I’d hand them over without blinking. With water: just when you think it cannot possibly get saltier, you suddenly find it is time to immediately call the anti-maltoporn brigade. Mouth: syrupy in texture but also astonishingly salty, drying and pure. Lashings of petrol, oily peat, game meats, boiler smoke, old toolboxes, bouquet garni of dried herbs but most specifically mint, tarragon and parsley. Also more mentholated eucalyptus tones. You can throw soy sauce, ramen broth and gorse flowers into the mix as well. We could go on for days just picking out wee flavours, but really this is a whisky entirely about that tiny harmonious sweet spot between power, balance and depth of flavour. With water: deeper, dustier, peatier and more resinously herbal and medical. It’s also fruitier with wee exotic touches such as grapefruit and dried mango. A notch less saline now and more towards coal smoke, anthracite soot, carbon paper, ink, tar, mushroom powder and wee vegetal touches. The kind of whisky that commands your attention and seizes total control. Finish: endless, salty, peaty, chalky, mineral, oily, petrolic, herbal, rooty, earthy, vegetal and coastal. Mesmeric. Comments: These kinds of bottlings aren’t really a surprise these days. But they never fail to be a devastating reminder of just how good whisky can - and should - be. Not to mention the limitations imposed upon quality when all you focus on is yield, efficiency and wood.
SGP: 567 - 95 points.