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| Hi, this is one of our (almost) daily tastings. Santé! |
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December 14, 2021 |
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Caol Ila on the desk again |
A.K.A. the sure bet or the peater that never disappoints. #1 malt whisky on little WF as far as numbers of different expressions go, and that won't change any time soon. |
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| Caol Ila crabs still fed on distillery waste back then, best in ye whole world-> |
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Caol Ila 19 yo 2001/2021 (57.6%, Gordon & MacPhail, Connoisseurs Choice for The Whisky Exchange, first fill barrel, cask #308900, 192 bottles) 
CI, G&M, CC, TWE, that's a classic set-up. Colour: light gold. Nose: fully on cigar ashes and other ashes, vanilla, sawdust, peat smoke and toasted cake. Bonfire and barbecue. No seawater/oysters and no lemons this time, which is a little unusual. With water: same, plus a medicinal side. Iodine, gauze… Mouth (neat): salt, brine, seawater and oysters this time, even if the core remains extremely ashy. Some tapenade in the background (crushed olives with anchovies and garlic – well all families have their own recipes). With water: I'm wondering of the barrel wasn't a little too active for Caol Ila. Don't get me wrong, it's rather perfect Caol Ila, but I tend to like them 'fresher'. Finish: same feeling, some peppery oak, vanilla, a little fudge… Comments: a slightly oak-boosted variant, very good for sure but perhaps also a little fat around the corners.
SGP:456 - 84 points. |
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Caol Ila 10 yo 2011/2021 (54%, Thompson Bros., de-char/re-char hogshead, 333 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: you do feel that it's been boosted-up with some reactivated oak, rather in the style of the G&M CC, but this time they're rather smoked almonds an lapsang souchong that are playing first fiddles. A little more plasticine too. With water: ashes and coconut. Not hundred percent sure. Mouth (neat): big smoky butterscotch and salty ale. Something like that. With water: ah, there, the spirit's having the upper hand now, it was about time. Sauvignon blanc, lemon juice, rhubarb, oyster juice. A little coconut again in the aftertaste. Finish: long, a tad fat for CI. Smoked cakes or something. Oily aftertaste. Comments: same ballpark. An interesting variant but there's a little too much 'sweet and coating' oak for me.
SGP:656 - 83 points. |
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Caol Ila 10 yo 2010/2021 (52.9%, Thompson Bros., refill hogshead, 500 bottles) 
Welcome back to civilisation ;-). Colour: white wine. Nose: there, crabs, French beans, young Comté cheese, bandages, ashes, smoky porridge (well, porridge with a good glass of Caol Ila thrown in), limestone, mashed potatoes… With water: superb beers and sourdough. Leaven. Mouth (neat): perfect sharp young chiselled CI, with a lot of apple juice, then salt, seawater, lapsang, lemon and mercurochrome. NO quibbles this time. With water: excellent, with first-grade lemons. Finish: long, medicinal, bandage-y. Comments: all right. Pure refill all the way.
SGP:456 - 87 points. |
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Caol Ila 10 yo 2010/2021 (54.2%, Thompson Bros. for London Whisky Club, 294 bottles) 
Just one question, is Boris a member of the London Whisky Club? Colour: white wine. Nose: bicycle inner tube and new magazines, porridge, ink, bandages… This is impeccable. With water: same. Impeccable. A tad more rubbery than the previous one, but that would be good rubber. Mouth (neat): salty, coastal, smoky, pure, clean, sharp, chiselled. With water: some immaculate smoky brine. Finish: same. Tough young CI, toughness being an utter asset in this context. Tarry olives in the aftertaste – olives always win it, tarry ones even more so. Comments: big young boy, rather of South-Coast style. I could pour this into my main hipflask! (the one with a Tom-Petty-and-the-Heartbreakers logo).
SGP:357 - 88 points. |
Nah, oak's not always your friend; Let's move on… |
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Caol Ila 13 yo 2008/2021 (55.4%, Signatory Vintage for malt, grain & cane, hogshead, cask #300057, 292 bottles)
We're expecting some kind of purity here… Colour: white wine. Nose: sharp smoky porridge, ink, ashes, eggplants, olives, hessian, tarry ropes, kelp… Pristine. With water: carbolineum and leatherette, then gravel and beach pebbles. Mouth (neat): late-harvest riesling, smoked and peppered, plus a little butterscotch. With water: immaculate young Caol Ila, extremely hard to beat. Finish: long, salty, pure, superb. Comments: we're still expecting all those new distilleries in SCO to make a proper peater. No, dumping your make into ex-Laphroaig casks does not count, that's even ueber-lousy. Do not cut corners.
SGP:357 - 88 points. |
Perhaps some multi-vintage by The Sponge?... |
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Caol Ila 9 yo 2007+2011/2021 (53.6%, WhiskySponge, 481 bottles)
A brainwave by our dear Sponge, assembling some perfectly all right ex-refill CI with some moderately embarrassing ex-de-char/re-char American oak hoggie CI. What could go wrong? Colour: straw. Nose: nice, just a little indefinite. Old hessian bag found on a beach and some curiously sweetened seashells. Would anyone dare stew mussels or oysters in vanilla sauce? With water: okay, even very good, rather reminding me of the official range. Mouth (neat): good, but I'm not sure I'm getting why this little fatness around the edges. With water: good but kind of in midstream. Finish: good but a tad sweet. Comments: honestly, it's very good, but it kind of reminds of that old Vietnam poster that we were all having in our bedrooms in the early 1970s and that was just asking 'Why?' (next to that bl*^dy Che Guevara).
SGP:556 - 85 points. |
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Caol Ila 13 yo 2008/2021 (59.7%, Gordon & MacPhail, Connoisseurs Choice for LMDW, first fill sherry butt, cask #312075, 562 bottles)
562 bottles from a single barrel, that's rather a lot, no? But who's counting? Colour: gold. Nose: it's ex-first fill but it is a straighter, purer one, more medicinal than others, more on embrocations, bandages, iodine, then fish oils, creosote, mud, raw wool, even wet dogs (we owe you eternally, dogs!)… With water: even more medicinal. Mercurochrome. The 1st fill wood did not kill it. Mouth (neat): absolutely very good, rather resinous, vegetal (oregano), with wee chemical notes (nothing too serious, rather around plastic bags, or rather rubber bands) and a grassy smokiness. With water: well, there's a little more oaky sweetness, which ain't too god in my book, but it's well-behaved vanilla and coconut. Still, too bad… Finish: rather long, a little sweet(ish). Comments: extremely good once again, but the sweetish 1st fill American oak feels in the end – while it lost two points. Remember that in whisky, oak is the best friend and the worst enemy.
SGP:556 - 86 points. |
Update: there had been some mismatch in some documents, it was not a first fill bourbon barrel contrarily to what I had first written. Thanks Claude. |
What's rather terrifying is that we currently haven't got any late 1970s-early 1980s CI in the boxes... |
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Caol Ila 13 yo 2007/2021 (58.1%, The Whisky Blues, refill hogshead, cask #320327)
Colour: white wine. Nose: this is going to be quick. Sharp lemon, chalk, seashells, mercurochrome. With water: chalk, raw wool, porridge… Mouth (neat): the superiority of refill over first fill showcased and demonstrated. Wonderful sharp, chiselled, ultra-vertical peppery and smoky embrocations and medicines. Oh, and oysters. And lemons. With water: yeah, pristine, ultra-tight and tense, with these coastal coatings (lobster?) Finish: long, rich and yet tight, and superb. Comments: high-class bluesy Caol Ila, with some power. I'm thinking of Poppa Chubby (google is your friend - well it isn't at all, but you see what I mean).
SGP:467 - 88 points. |
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