Caol Ila 20 yo 1975 / 1996 Rare Malts 61.12%

Classic 70s Caol Ila, which may come as a shock if you’re not expecting this razor sharp saline and glowing minerals. Thin but pungent smoke from a relatively cleanly burning peat, hot sand plus a cocktail of citric lemon and wintergreen oil. Austere is a word often used. Brutal is equally acceptable from a less experienced tongue. This one is perhaps a touch more phenolic with weighty mineral oils, carbon paper, and punchy with ozone and hotly mentholated rubs through the nose. Or is that the potent alcohol driving this brakeless train onwards, a battering ram on the nose. Merciless and searing, like the love one develops for these old Scotch, my brothers will understand. 91 pts