Caol Ila 1968 / 1990 Gordon & Macphail 58.6%

This one is a long time coming. Combine the deepest phenolics with the grimiest organic funk. Heavily ripe, almost animalic farmy, wet mud and cowpats. Yet the gods of whisky and their mysterious ways have brought this together just so. Dark resins of tarry burnt and carbolic hues. Rather glorious. Zip of sea salt and industrial hydrocarbons – black ink, soot of a thousand  lamps. Coal furnaces and burning compost like  lava through peatland. Burnt coffee, candied citron, spearmint bitters, and medicinal cough remedies with menthol and eucalyptus. Seaweed, briney mud, fresh catch. It’s getting too much to go on about and at some point one needs to just sit back and enjoy. 94 pts