Caol Ila 11 yo 'Batch 12' (48.1%, That Boutique-y Whisky Company, 1489 bottles)
A label featuring Brian Blessed, now there's an idea…! Colour: white wine. Nose: it's one of these ones which displays these rather yeasty, fermentary aspects, like sea salt on fresh sourdough. I think it's a quality that is often magnified in Caol Ila by reduced bottling strengths. Beyond that a more scented and elegant profile, all about the shoreline, with sandalwood, rock pools, beach pebbles, sand and some fragrant bath salts. Easy and super pleasant. Mouth: indeed, these yeasty aspects persist, but here there's also more saline minerality, more seawater, lemon juice, pickling brine and this impression smoked sea salt. Simple but faultless. Finish: good length, gently ashy and with a deeper and more robust smokiness. Comments: impeccable, consistent and pure: check!
SGP: 365 - 87 points.

Chaos Edition No 2 (50%, North Star, 2 oloroso butts and one refill hogshead oloroso finish, bottled 2020, 1500 bottles)
It doesn't say Caol Ila on the label. But, according to 'chaos theory'… I'm sorry. Colour: bright amber. Nose: the sherry adds a totally different, very leathery and umami element with lots of lightly cured game meats, ointments, damp earthiness, hints of herbal liqueurs and some wonderfully resinous saltiness. With water: softer, more herbaceous, sandalwood, sappy touches and beach woods. Mouth: the sherry works, which isn't always the case with these modern Islays. It's nicely sappy, salty, ashy, briny and full of nice pickled notes. Gherkin, cornichon, anchovy and miso. More cured meats again. With water: olives, TCP, ointments, camphor and classical briny notes mixed with an easy, leafy sherry quality. Finish: good length, becoming very tarry, salty, slightly mustardy and with tobacco and thick medicinal notes. Comments: extremely good. A rare example where modern peat and modern sherry get along just fine.
SGP: 476 - 86 points.

Caol Ila 11 yo 2009/2020 (58.2%, North Star, oloroso sherry butt, 410 bottles)
Sticking with North Star and with sherry. I hear at North Star they circumvent Brexit import issues by transporting their sherry casks from Spain to Scotland by Tuk-Tuk. Not that's innovation! Colour: deep gold. Nose: interesting, this one is really more on hessian, aniseed, herbal cough medicines, jasmine and a rather briny and kippery smokiness. The sherry certainly evolves this blade-like distillate in different direction, one that's earthier, rounder and more 'organic' in style perhaps. With water: herbal, undergrowth, rugged smokiness, black olives, tar and some sooty notes. Mouth: deeply tarry, leathery, herbal, sooty and with many classical meaty notes such as bacon jam and scamp fries - things that you really only find in British pubs I suppose. Indeed, I'm not getting pork scratchings, but this could be the power of suggestion. With water: gets saltier, more coastal and more towards pickling juices, black olives, cured meats, bouillon broth and mustard oil. One of those drams that seems to accrue power and heft with dilution. Finish: long, rather peppery, spiced with smoked paprika, more mustardy notes, horseradish and wasabi. Pointedly spicy I'd say. Comments: A whole heap of fun, although at times rather brutish. Kind of like a bar brawl captured in a tasting glass. Another one where the sherry influence works precisely because it is rather restrained and keeps largely out of the distillate's way.
SGP: 477 - 88 points.

Caol Ila 11 yo 2009/2020 (58.8%, Elixir Distillers 'The Single Malts Of Scotland', cask #317838, hogshead, 300 bottles)
Apparently this one hasn't been released yet, so it's an extremely rare occurrence where I'm publishing notes in advance. Colour: white wine. Nose: quite closed at first but you do get these rather specific notes of hospital corridors and strong floor cleaner. Caustic soda, chalk, wet hessian and mineral salts. Probably needs water: shakes its head with water and there's now this nice cluttered minerality. A big, jangly, wind-raked seashore. Lots of dried seaweed, seashells, sheep wool and pure seawater. Excellent but you have to like them extremely pure and - as Serge would say - 'millimetric'. Mouth: there's a lovely sense of concentration at first. Like syrupy peat, olive oil and natural tar with TCP, ointments, lemon juice and salt cured white fish. A total blade! With water: dustier, thicker, tarrier, more towards the farmyard but still with a firmly coastal aspect. Wet rope, white pepper, hessian, smoked olive oil and anchovy paste. Finish: long, briny, smoky, salty and fresh. Comments: at times it's a little challenging, but the big picture is undeniably impressive. Once again we're in the  same ballpark of quality.
SGP: 367 - 87 points.

Caol Ila 12 yo 2008/2020 (58.5%, The Whisky Exchange, cask #313261, hogshead, 283 bottles)
Back to Elixir House, and straight to the board room please… Colour: white wine. Nose: raw, bright, lemony, briny goodness. It's one of these ones where the purity and the precision are immediately there, but there's also a sense of fragrance, seashore and general freshness which elevates it further. This rather soft, fragile minerality that takes in bath salts, beach sand and then things like gorse flower and hints of seaweed. Extremely attractive, even at full strength. With water: a beautiful and quite surprising fruitiness emerges, bergamot, lemon peel and grapefruit. Also some very delicate notes of dried lavender and Earl Grey tea. This impression of softness and fragrance is really lovely. Mouth: superbly sharp, chiselled, bright, citric and ever so slightly tart with green acidity. Lemon peel, chalk, seawater and a touch of hessian. With water: soft, unfurling wispy smokiness now, more citrons, chalk, beach pebbles, grapefruit pith, smoked teas and dried flowers. Finish: long, elegant, drying, brittle smoke, minerals and seaweed. Comments: I was teetering between 88-89 at full strength, but water really propels this one comfortably up a notch. There are many Caol Ilas that have this perfect purity and precision balance, but occasionally you get these examples that have something 'extra' which elevates them a notch higher. A lot of pleasure here.
SGP: 466 - 90 points.

Caol Ila 35 yo (50.9%, Elixir Distillers 'Director's Special', bottled 2020, 144 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: I'm starting to think maybe we should just have an aroma called 'old Caol Ila smell'. This wonderful mix of fragrant smoked teas, camphor, seaweed, cough medicines and soft, wispy puffs of peat smoke. Exquisite. Lovely notes of lapsing souchong, umami paste, pickled ginger, peppercorns in brine and lemon liqueur. With water: brighter, fresher, more citric, more crisply smoky and with notes of toasted fennel seed, lanolin, camphor and smoked olive oil. Just beautiful. Mouth: herbal and wonderfully syrupy in texture. With many subtle suggestions of gorse, wormwood, aniseed, cough medicines, old Chartreuse, lemon rind, bergamot and this beautifully fragrant, heather-centric smokiness. With water: indeed it awakens just the right amount and develops a firmer edge on the palate, more salty, a little more assertive peat smoke and flavours of mixed herbs, umami and green olive with the softest natural tar note. Finish: a long fade of soft peat smoke, medicines, seashore freshness, sandalwood, gorse and herbal teas. Comments: Like most of these casks, this is just totally spellbinding, fully mature Islay whisky. Not exotically fruity, rather more on citrus fruits, but really showcasing the full spectrum of elegance and subtlety to be found in coastal accented single malt. Exquisite, is the word I believe.
SGP: 565 - 92 points.