Caol Ila CL4 Speciality Drinks vs Caol Ila Distillery Only 2007
A funny thing I notice about Caol Ila is that great and consistent though it generally is, it wouldn’t pop up as a first thought in the minds of people when the talk turns to the heavyweights down south. It not that Caol Ila isn’t substantially peated – it has quite a bucketful of the ashy smoky phenols one associates with peatiness. Could it that what Caol Ila has less of are those low base notes of medicine, tar, burning rubber or oily smoke. Sure it has it phenolics but in my imagination they seem to sit within the mid to upper tiers of weight. where Lagavulin for example has a very exaggerated ‘dirtiness’. On the other hand, I also appreciate that the right Caol Ila is a match even for Ardbeg…
Caol Ila CL4 Speciality Drinks 58.7%
Nose: NAS but showing some maturity and a good level of development, there should be teenagers in here maybe? Tangy peat and salt air, salty rocks, freshly pulled seaweed, freshly opened menthol Marlboros. Very fresh and almost zesty. Newly fallen ash, burnt thyme, cinchona bark, indeed there is something bark-y.. pine also, I think. And juniper? All laid out on a grill. Well composed.
Palate: Salty and tangy but lots of sweet peat, light medicinals and light earth. Classic notes of white ash, clean smoke, and here the green medicinals appear hot and bright – lots of jujubes, eucalyptus and green peppermint sting. Gets bitter and charred with time.
Finish: Rather long and getting bitter, flinty, charred straws and bitter bark.
Caol Ila Distillery Only 2007 58.4%
Nose: While similiar, this one is far bigger than the CL4, although it is also less nuanced. Lots of gristly smoke, thick raw peat, churning surf, quite a bit of clean bandages and more of those hot green herbs again – eucalyptus, jujubes, peppermint and juniper, all fixed in a thick oily base.
Palate: Very powerful. Hot stone and steaming seawater it seems. An earthy, oily, salty peat and pungent brown smoke. Charred things. Quite some clean medicine too like opened bandages. Less obvious herbals now but it’s there and gives the whole an astringent lining. Immense the way you expect a young Caol Ila to be immense.
Finish: After that onslaught, not the longest finish. Ash, smoke, salt, perhaps some quinine.
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