Caol Ila 15 yo Sestante for Novecento 64.7% vs Caol Ila 15 yo Sestante 65.3%
Caol Ila 15 yo Sestante for Novecento 64.7%
Familiar sort of brutal Caol Ila, the kind that’s oily, rooty, flinty, briny and lemony, but as narrow as the space between X and Y, razor sharp and immensely powerful. A profile quite common in 70s distillates. This one rather forward on smoked roots and peated malt, rather simple, but in the sense of the sharpest cut building blocks a malt could have. Gentian flakes, lemon rind, tons of salt, cut seaweed and cleaned sea shells thrown into fires. No bones about it. 89 pts
Caol Ila 15 yo Sestante 65.3%
So, still a precise and powerful Caol Ila, but this one seems to have evolved that layer of phenolic depth that sets the best peaters apart. Flammable gas, bags of coal, and the smell of dry firewood igniting. Soot stained glass lamps and prawns burning on the bbq. Feels like a sheer rock face, impenetrable and unscalable. On the tongue it’s somewhat shorter and more brittle than expected, transitioning quickly from phenols to the finish, which is a pity but the nose however… 91 pts
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whiskyrific 
Even more than the string of desirable drams you’ve been guzzling, of late, it is your wordsmithery that makes me envious.
“as narrow as the space between X and Y”
Wow.