Stoking the Whiskyfun Caol Ila pages

Caol Ila 11 yo 2012/2023 (48%, Elixir Distillers ‘The Single Malts of Scotland Reserve Casks’, 4 refill butts)
Color: pale gold. Nostril: petrol, mineral salts and a relatively salty, inexperienced and grassy high quality that does recommend some sherry casks deep within the combine. Pure peat, mercurochrome and seawater. Fairly exemplary! Mouth: lemons and limes and peat ashes galore! Additionally cornichons in brine, capers and different pickling juice vibes. There’s nonetheless a really properly salty, chiselled and barely earthy sherry ‘feeling’ about it, but it surely nonetheless exhibits ample distillate DNA entrance and centre. End: medium, again on salted almonds, wooden ashes, kelp and tarry smoke. Feedback: I’d merely add that it’s a relatively fats and punchy wee Caol Ila, regardless of the relatively intelligent diminished power. 
SGP: 467 – 87 factors.

Caol Ila 9 yo 2013 (57.2%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society 53.457 ‘Coal shards on clotted cream’, Oloroso sherry end) 
457 casks of Caol Ila by the SMWS alone! At this fee they are going to get to 1000 earlier than Whiskyfun! Color: grubby gold. Nostril: a richer and extra gingery sherry affect on this one. Moderately lots of spicy, darkish grained breads, smoked German darkish beers, salted liquorice, camphor and anchovy paste. Huge, thick, chunky whisky! With water: camphor, tar liqueur, pine needles and cough syrup – it really works properly! Mouth: very punchy arrival! Malt vinegar, charred wooden, iodine and tarry rope. Additionally some black peppercorns and emotions of roof pitch and kerosine. The relative activeness of the oak is clear but it surely feels moderately properly in test by this beautiful monstrously peaty distillate. With water: very properly salty, earthy and with a restrained gamey word too now. Additionally tons of seawater, cayenne pepper, aniseed and horseradish. A complete beast that may headbutt any Octomore underneath the desk! End: lengthy, very tarry, petrolic, peaty and medicinal, additionally extraordinarily salty and drying now too. Feedback: an uncomplicated, no holds barred Caol Ila that’s actually fairly excessive in locations. It feels just like the sherry casks was fairly lively however that it merely acquired relentlessly crushed down by this large Caol Ila distillate. Looks as if they upped the peat degree a bit in these vintages? 
SGP: 468 – 85 factors.

Caol Ila 9 yo 2013/2022 (57.3%, The Whisky Alternate for The Whisky Present, cask #316159, refill hogshead)
I’m laughably late with this, not that we purpose to at all times attempt bottlings on the level of launch thoughts you. Color: gold. Nostril: rounder, oilier with a extra advanced interaction of peat and medicinal features, a richer smokiness and subtler notes of sandalwood, gorse and seashore pebbles. So totally different from the SMWS. With water: a tad less complicated now, with pure seawater, inexperienced olive and wooden ashes. Mouth: creamy and mouth-filling arrival, plenty of pine wooden, camphor, pure peat smoke, black olives in brine, BBQ-charred shellfish and numerous umami, salty and briny impressions. Properly tight and cohesive Caol Ila. With water: once more this sense of roundness and cohesiveness, creamy texture, with pure peat smoke, dry phenolics, tar and plenty of vigorous salty notes. End: fairly lengthy, very coastal and powerfully salty, dry smoke, anchovy paste and antiseptic. Feedback: I believe I most well-liked this one neat, however total one other superb one with a properly direct and singular profile. 
SGP: 366 – 86 factors. 

Caol Ila 9 yo 2013/2023 (59.6%, Watt Whisky, hogshead, 306 bottles)
Let’s see what the Watts have been as much as… Color: pale white wine. Nostril: very near the uncooked distillate now, actually on petrol, puffer smoke, seawater, freshly kilned malt and moist linens. In time a constructing medicinal profile filled with iodine and TCP. With water: a barely broader smokiness which provides some complexity, extra emotions of pure kiln air, umami seasonings and seashore sand. Mouth: very pure, sharp, chiselled and centred round seawater, pickling brine, lemon juice and wooden ashes. A number of seashore stuff too, similar to crushed seashells, rock pool vibes and moist seaweed. With water: cider apple, extra briny issues, nonetheless vastly salty, some traces of fennel seed and smoked olive oil. Very good! End: lengthy, sharp, filled with mineral salts, lemon juice, olive brine and a tar-flecked smokiness. Feedback: It’s uncooked and even a tad brutal in locations, however this seems like this type of relatively intelligent bottle that may develop into actually sensible if left to take a seat in a darkish cabinet for a couple of many years. Extraordinarily stylish Caol Ila. 
SGP: 467 – 88 factors. 

Caol Ila 35 yo 1984/2020 (47.5%, The Golden Cask, #CM260, bourbon barrel, 204 bottles)
Color: pale gold. Nostril: a type of completely beautiful and actually idiosyncratic previous Caol Ilas that reek of gently smoked inexperienced teas, honey, eucalyptus oils, tiger balm and tar liqueurs. Indestructible whisky! Develops much more intricately alongside these traces of honey and refined medicinal balms and herbs, additionally a really tiny farmyard facet emerges with time. Bergamot, wormwood and woodruff! Mouth: peated honey if such a factor existed. Nice arrival, very tarry, peppery and surprisingly nonetheless very peaty with good energy and assault. Additionally preserved lemons, lapsing souchong tea, extra eucalyptus and tea tree oil vibes and extra matcha and even wee tropical components. End: lengthy, fantastically elegant peat smoke notes, sure up with crystallised, dried out previous honeys, pressed flowers and extra smoked herbs and teas. Feedback: fairly superb freshness, brightness and energy, whereas additionally very evidently being an older whisky in the perfect sense. Caol Ila from these vintages appears to have some type of immutable stamina. 
SGP: 566 – 91 factors.

Caol Ila 36 yo 1984/2020 (53.1%, Kingsbury’s for Auld Alliance and Membership Qing, sherry butt, cask #2752)
Color: deep tawny amber. Nostril: raisins, tar liqueur, darkish honeys, plum sauce, very weighted with camphor and salted treacle. An actual sense of texture, like nosing molasses with many extra and sophisticated impressions of salted liquorice, aniseed liqueur, walnut wine and smoked artichokes.  Heavy but in addition somewhat playful on the similar time, which makes it very entertaining. With water: filled with bitter herbs and old style medicinal qualities, sturdy natural teas, cloves, cheng pi orange peels and pure tar extract. Mouth: very tarry, phenolic and drying, with an amazingly salty and umami savoury aspect. Additionally lots of very beefy and gamey sherry qualities. Previous leather-based, camphor, fir wooden resins, beeswax, celery salty, cocktail bitters and artichoke liqueur. An previous spirit that additionally converges with previous rum in some methods as properly, with these nearly funky qualities. With water: get less complicated now, actually into natural bitters, salt-baked greens, medicinal roots and tinctures and a really peppery, drying natural peat. End: lengthy, natural bitters once more, extra artichoke, tar and natural liqueurs and a couple of litre of Maggi! Feedback: –
SGP: 376 – 89 factors.

Caol Ila 40 yo 1982/2022 (49.5%, The Whisky Alternate ‘The A long time’, two hogsheads, 286 bottles)
Color: gold. Nostril: related ballpark to the Golden Cask, however extra accented by sandalwood, olive oils, boot polish and cedar wooden. It’s additionally exhibiting this excellent mixture of waxes, citrus and honey that you just discover in Clynelish of comparable pedigree. Additionally nonetheless some great coastal freshness within the type of crushed seashells, seashore pebbles and impressions of white coastal flowers. Undimmed and irrefutable! Mouth: excellent arrival, medicines galore, together with aged mead, citrus liqueurs, lanolin, grassy olive oil, pine wooden resins and extra of those assertive and great notes of matcha and inexperienced tea with lemon. It’s additionally acquired this beautiful and splendidly tense interaction between coastal notes that go in the direction of umami and savoury with these salty qualities, assume Maggi, soy sauce and nori. But in addition a fruitiness that veers between inexperienced and yellow and unique variously. A kind of very previous peated malts that makes you actually assume nearly philosophically about peat as an ingredient. End: splendidly lengthy, salty, honeyed, waxy and filled with peat phenolics, previous medical tinctures, crystallised citrus rinds and dried herbs. Feedback: a whisky that’s concurrently humbling, advanced, recent and very important, previous and decadent and outrageously quaffable. Many packing containers ticked right here! 
SGP: 665 – 92 factors. 

Caol Ila 13 yo 1977/1990 (63.8%, Gordon & MacPhail for Turatello, Italy)
An previous rarity from the warehouses of G&M for these forward of the curve Italians… Color: deep gold. Nostril: very petrolic and ‘greasy’ in the most effective of senses. It has a few of these terrific briny and seawater qualities that the newer vintages possess, solely there’s this added feeling of fatness right here. Sheep wool oils, tarry rope, gherkins, anchovy paste, tiny hints of salted honey and TCP! With water: deeply into anchovy, sardines in smoked olive oil, capers mashed right into a salsa verde with malt vinegar and pure seawater and lemon juice. Mouth: most likely some sherry affect at play as there’s this beautiful salted almond and smoked kipper mixture, together with an earthiness and a relatively wealthy peppery streak as properly. Extra of those great vegetable inventory, Maggi and smoked artichoke vibes that we frequently discover in these older Caol Ilas. Lashings of tar, medical embrocations and previous natural ointments. With water: terrifically rounded, entire and singular now! Fats, thick peat smoke, tar, black pepper, salted liquorice and large, hearty, briny notes. End: very lengthy, with germoline, which seems like very textbook Caol Ila. Additionally masses extra managed and pin-sharp coastal freshness, salinity after which kippers and smoked olive oil within the aftertaste. Feedback: a captivating glimpse into these later Seventies vintages. Big whisky, however exhibiting nice fatness, management and even a degree of ease and drinkability that you just don’t at all times discover with peated, excessive ABV malts. 
SGP: 477 – 91 factors. 

Caol Ila 25 yo 1976/2001 (59.9%, Signatory Classic for LMDW, Straight From The Cask, hogshead, cask #8087, 423 bottles)
There are some beautiful casks by Signatory from 1974 and a few glorious ones from 1975 however I’m not too certain about 1976, let’s see… Color: pale gold. Nostril: stunning, bone-dry peat smoke and coastal freshness, very focussed on sea air, seashore pebbles, sand, ink, rock swimming pools and many others. Additionally some inexperienced olives, dried seaweed, nori and really umami issues like Maggi, squid ink and anchovy paste. With water: pristinely salty, briny, drying, coastal, beautifully recent and chiselled. On pink sea salt, crushed aspirin, seawater and olive tapenades. Mouth: glorious arrival, remembers a number of the nice 1974s with this very oily and petrolic peat profile, whereas additionally looking forward to the 1979s with hints of inexperienced tea with lemon, pure matcha and bone-dry smokiness. Most likely a method that may encourage Serge to start mentioning many costly dry white wines… with water: beneficial properties some breadth of peat flavour, changing into somewhat thicker and deeper with black pepper, smoked olive oil, peppered and smoked mackerels, sardines in oil, pure tar and mercurochrome. Whoever stated Caol Ila was a ‘medium’ peated Islay? End: splendidly lengthy, with a brittle, crystalline peat smoke, additionally extra tar, wooden ashes, TCP, smoked beers and plenty of extra softer coastal impressions that retain freshness. Feedback: watch these ‘in between’ vintages, they are often fairly beautiful, as is the case right here. A unique whisky from the 1972, however no much less impactful, and nearly as sensible in my wee e-book. I really like the way in which it concurrently appears to be like forwards and backwards when it comes to distillery character. 
SGP: 466 – 91 factors.

Caol Ila 24 yo 1974/1998 (46%, Wilson & Morgan)
Color: pale straw. Nostril: pure, coastal and extremely mineral. Splendidly on crushed seashells, white flowers, chalk, sheep wool and seawater with hints of grapefruit and cider apple. Additionally some acquainted notes of smoked and natural teas. Charming, recent and fantastically detailed. Mouth: glorious arrival, on petrol, seawater, inexperienced fruits and natural teas with lemon. Remembers some youthful 1979s in some methods. Continues with extra grapefruit, lime, smoked cereals and a relatively ‘woolly’ smokiness. Gentler than fairly a couple of different 1974s I’ve tasted, however no much less charming, maybe a extra refined profile. End: lengthy, getting somewhat heavier and fatter now, some fermentary notes, extra cider apple and tarry vibes. Feedback: humble, refined however uber stylish and extremely pleasurable Caol Ila. 1974 appears to be an nearly bullet proof classic for Caol Ila. 
SGP: 565 – 90 factors. 

Caol Ila 21 yo 1974/1995 (58.2%, Cadenhead, Genuine Assortment, 75cl)
Color: vibrant straw. Nostril: sure! That is emblematic of what involves thoughts once I consider Caol Ila 1974. Pure, fatty, petrolic energy! A giant, textural impression of uncooked, nearly grubby peat smoke, oily sheep wool, creosoted fence posts, inexperienced peppercorns in brine, moist plaster and seashore bonfire ashes. With water: very sharp, chiselled saltiness, pure lemon juice, seawater, gherkins and crushed sardines. Mouth: improbable, immensely peppery, peaty and tarry arrival that remembers Ardbeg of comparable pedigree. Additionally squid ink, seawater, a waxy high quality and plenty of smoked olive oil, recent oysters, tar and iodine. Turning into ashier, drier, brinier and with some huge ‘salt and vinegar on chips’ vibes. With water: magnificent oiliness and fatness, terrific and assertive peat flavour, with huge flavours of kelp, soy sauce, dried seaweed, iodine and plenty of issues similar to capers, extra gherkins and inexperienced olives in brine. End: very lengthy, pristinely salty, drying, tarry and with a pure, sensible, blade-like smokiness. Feedback: it’s tempting to attract comparisons with different Islay makes of the period, however these 1974s actually do carve their very own path. One more jewel within the Islay crown from this manufacturing period. 
SGP: 366 – 92 factors. 

Caol Ila 12 yo (43%, OB, Zenith import, early Eighties)
Color: white wine. Nostril: beautifully recent and medicinal, all on bandages, moist rocks, oysters and citrus juices, matched by inexperienced olives and sharper notes of gooseberry and bitter Gueuze beers. I additionally discover a beautiful heathery smokiness and extra medicinal embrocations and sea air. Pristine and delightful old style Caol Ila. Mouth: superb richness of peat smoke flavour, actually like they’ve captured this ‘head in a kiln’ vibe in distillate type. Beautifully silky in texture, splendidly crisp coastal freshness after which many thicker medicinal issues like mercurochrome and TCP. These inexperienced and sharper citrus fruit notes nonetheless stay within the background. End: good size, again on medicinal notes, coal smoke, a properly tarry high quality and extra issues like black pepper, iodine and smoked olive oil. Feedback: unimaginable to argue with this, a ravishing and relatively much less ‘technological’ expression of Caol Ila that shows a deeper and extra fascinating peat profile than up to date Caol Ila usually does with its relatively extra ashy and brutalist character. Additionally, love the strain between medicines and seashore. 
SGP: 456 – 91 factors.

Caol Ila 1972/1987 (40%, JAS Gordon & Co, Auxil import)
Color: pale gold. Nostril: such a unique profile of peat than would come later in 1974, that is simply a lot fatter, dirtier, oilier and way more natural with thick notes of dried herbs, hessian fabric, petrol and resinous fir wooden. A kind of aromas that basically implies an impression of texture and breadth within the distillate. There’s additionally many marine influences with options of coastal air, creel nets, tarred rope and black olives in brine. Great, very previous model and really significantly ‘previous Caol Ila’ aroma. Mouth: as so usually with these batches, even at 40% and over three many years in glass, this stays large whisky. Extraordinarily tarry and oily, with a peat profile that manages to be each drying and intensely gelatinous on the similar time. Previous natural cough medicines and liqueurs alongside salted liquorice and pure tar extract. I additionally discover some dried unique fruits and soy sauce. A relatively majestic fusion of umami, smoky, medicinal and fruity. End: lengthy, deep and drying peat smoke, with extra dried fruits, salt cured fish, tar, black olive and previous natural medicines. Feedback: easy in some methods with the sheer directness of its character, however advanced in others within the great means these peat and coastal influences entangle and manifest. A mode that not exists on Islay, or wherever for that matter.
 SGP: 555 – 92 factors. 

Caol Ila 15 yo (65.3%, Sestante, Eighties)
As is well-known, this juice would have been distilled within the ‘previous’ Caol Ila distillery and sourced from Gordon & MacPhail. Color: straw. Nostril: actually blurring the boundaries between petrol and whisky. It’s clearly a fats and intensely highly effective distillate, but it additionally manages to be an absolute blade of razor-sharp precision. The alcohol doesn’t actually even register, relatively it simply takes a little bit of respiratory time after which a gradual avalanche of coastal components, shellfish vibes and citrus fruits start to return by means of. With water: broadens out extremely, a deep, rustic and muscular smokiness emerges. Additionally some inexperienced herbs, extra seawater, but it surely relatively defies description, it’s simply an extremely direct, pure and dominating profile which you could solely observe alongside and gawp at. Mouth: I can’t assist however consider some very glorious and possibly costly Montrachet upon first sipping. It has that extraordinarily stylish ‘white wine’ vibe when it comes to precision, purity and sophistication. Ashes, wooden smoke, seawater, citrus acids, mineral salts, extra petrolic qualities – relatively mesmerising and completely dominating whisky. With water: citrus rinds galore, waxes, pink sea salt, the perfect preserved lemons, pure tar extracts, smoked cooking oils, camphor and large medicinal embrocations. Onerous to say extra, besides possibly name that anti-maltoporn brigade, for all of the use they ever are. End: extraordinarily lengthy, peat flavour with the feel of treacle whereas additionally retaining an excellent and completely pin sharp salinity. Feedback: a type of whiskies that’s actually extra a bodily expertise than a drink. An immense and completely dominating spirit. 
SGP: 467 – 94 factors.