Bottle Details
SMWS Code
53.472
Distillery
Caol Ila
ABV
56.8%
Age
10 Years
Cask
Ex-Bourbon Hogshead, 1st Fill Ex-Oloroso Hogshead
Distilled
April 3, 2013
Region
Islay
Flavor Profile
Peated
Category
Scotch
The whisky displays black bun, liquorice, and rum-flambéed pineapple alongside briny oysters with lemon and tabasco-pepper notes. Subtle rubber and engine belt aromas emerge, while water reveals darker sweetness with cinder toffee, cinnamon toast, and cough lozenge characteristics, alongside diesel and oilskin-like elements.
It delivers chilli lemon prawns, dried seaweed, chewing tobacco, and fernet notes with a briny minerality. Upon dilution, sweet smoke emerges with burnt newspaper, clinker ash, molasses, and apple strudel, complemented by coastal references of crab cakes and aged lobster creels.
The finish sustains the interplay between smoky sweetness and maritime brininess, reflecting the influence of Islay character refined by time in ex-bourbon wood and matured in first-fill American oak oloroso.
An amazing nose brought us black bun, liquorice, rum-flambéed pineapple and oysters with lemon and tabasco-pepper sauce, plus quaint hints of engine fan belts. The palate tasted like chilli lemon prawns from a beach bonfire, dried seaweed, chewing tobacco and fernet. The reduced nose offered dark sweetness (cinder toffee, cinnamon toast and cough lozenges), diesel engines in the harbour and fishermen’s oilskins drying in the sun. The palate combined sweet smoke (burnt newspaper, clinker ash, molasses and apple strudel) with coastal references (crab cakes and old lobster creels). This is a glorious twinning of Islay and Jerez; after seven years in ex-bourbon wood, this was transferred into a first fill American oak oloroso hogshead.