I quite like Caol Ila, they seem more open to releasing longer aged and complex whiskies from Islay. It's not all just stunt whisky to rip ya nads off.
This month we had seven Caol Ila's, which as we had one a few weeks ago, means I've had lots of CI. And am therefore in a good mood.
Caol Ila G & M 13yo 43% 'Discovery'
- n: light, peat, vanilla, sweet, antiseptic, hint of sick
- p: salty, dry, pepper, peat, sweet in middle
- f: long peppery and very warming
7/10 for this one, G&M are consistently good as bottlers, so no surprise there. I think I'd originally put it down as 7.5, but dropped it later. Came 6th on the night with 7.28
Port Askaig 8yo 45.8%
n: salty, antiseptic, iodine, bandages, warming
p: light, almost nothing, salt, peanuts
f: short-med, dry
6/10 quite disappointing, the nose promised a lot more than the palate delivered. Came 7th with 6.64
Caol Ila 25yo 43%
n: sherry, peat, sweet, tasty, older, brown sugar
p: watery, codliver oil, metallic
f: short, disappointing
5/10 This one divided our drinkers, our table really did not like it with most scores being 5 or 6, but it came 3rd overall with 8.0. I didn't get anything from the palate, nose was very nice tho. But not $400 worth of nice.
Caol Ila 17yo 55.9% Unpeated style 2015
n: older, ozone, cirtrus, port, sweet, bandacopy ink, unpeated? dark chocolate
p: hot, peaty, effervescent, liquorice, woody
f: hot, salty, med-long
8/10 ahhh this was more like it, interesting being a unpeated, although there are still hints of peat/smoke in there. Came 2nd with 8.08
Port Askaig 100 proof 57.1%
n: iodine, medicinal, vinegar, salt, coastal
p: medicinal, salty, actually very very salty
f: smokey, grows very very hot, long
8.5/10 yeah I liked this, classic Islay whisky. And very reasonably priced (under NZ $100) so a bottle may sneak into my collection. Came 5th overall with 7.5.
Mystery: Cotswolds peaty cask English whisky.
n: fruit salad, cold tinned spaghetti, pineapples/papaya, bergamot
p: fruity, crystallised papaya
f: long, salt at the end.
8/10 interesting, and yeah it genuinely smelt of cold tinned spaghetti, weird. I'm liking what the Cotswolds distillery is putting out... Came 4th, 7.66
Caol Ila 18yo 2017 59.8% unpeated style
n: sweet, dark chocolate, light peat, fresh cut sawdust, balsa wood
p: salt, peat, tangy, marshmallows
f: long, hot, boom!
8/10 again another good whisky, and the finish is very quiet then explodes, really good stuff. Came first with 8.47.
Slainte, b
