If you ask me, the rock-solid workhorse distillery that is Caol Ila still doesn't get enough time in the limelight. While contributing to blended whiskies will always be its bread & butter, the single malts - or more often, new make spirits destined for warehouses on the mainland - that make the climb up the hill to the ferry terminal at Port Askaig have earned their spots amongst the Islay greats. But the lack of limelight is understandable, since most novice or casual whisky drinkers will have only seen the standard entry-level 12-year old official bottling from this distillery, or perhaps the Moscatel wine-finished Distiller's Edition if they've taken a closer look at the right shelf. When a whisky drinker is looking to step up in ABV and is searching for a more natural presentation - as in non-chill filtered and naturally coloured - and Caol Ila takes their fancy, they turn to the independent bottlers. And that's finally where they're spoiled for choice. Cask strength bottlings from the likes of Gordon & MacPhail, Elements of Islay, Port Askaig (albeit undisclosed), Signatory Vintage, Adelphi and North Star are well worth hunting down. But what if you want to stay with official bottlings from the distillery owners, Diageo, and you still want a higher strength, bigger texture and more natural presentation? Then you're almost out of luck. In fact, unless you're lucky enough to visit the distillery itself in the Inner Hebrides (and also get your timing right) so you can lay your hands on a Distillery Exclusive or Feis Ile bottling, or can pay enough to get one at secondary auction, then you're completely out of luck. But that wasn't always the case...
Back when I was still a newcomer myself, I spotted a bottle of Caol Ila that had been sitting on Brisbane bar Cobbler's shelf for quite some time. On a previous visit I had enjoyed my first encounter with Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength, Batch 003 or 004 from memory, and I was now tossing up between another dram of that massive whisky, or trying this stranger of a bottle that had caught my eye. I knew of Caol Ila, but like many future whisky geeks at that stage I had only tried the 12-year old and the Distiller's Edition, so I was curious to see what Caol Ila could do at a higher strength and a younger age. This bottle didn't have an age statement, but it did have a number on the label that made me look twice - 61.6% ABV. After the bottle was pulled down from the shelf, the subtle, nondescript presentation didn't tell me much about what was coming - aside from three words, printed in small red font, diagonally across the front label: Natural Cask Strength. The rest of that experience has now been lost in the blur of time and subsequent drams, but that bottle had left an impression, and it held up perfectly well against the aforementioned Laphroaig. I later stumbled on to a very early YouTube review of that same whisky from the legendary Ralfy, who scored it very highly. And that probably would've been the end of the story, had I not come across a bottle on website The Odd Whisky Coy years later, for sale at a very reasonable price. So I snapped it up, and then waited to see if it could live up to that hazy but favourable memory. Spoiler alert: it does, and then some. And now the time has come for this bottle to get the time in the limelight that it deserves!
These non-age statement (NAS) Natural Cask Strength bottlings of Caol Ila have long been discontinued, unfortunately, and they haven't been replaced - leaving a gaping hole in the distillery's official line-up. The bottling that I'm reviewing seems to have been the last batch, which was bottled way back in 2008. From my admittedly brief research, there seem to have been quite a few different batches, somewhere around eight in fact, dating back to somewhere around 2004. Each was bottled at a different ABV, and none had any cask details on the labels - but we can assume they were matured in refill casks, probably of the American oak ex-bourbon hogshead variety, since that tends to be the preferred method for these Diageo bottlings - but that's no bad thing, not at all! So, an NAS - but young-ish - Caol Ila, bottled at a hefty cask strength of 61.6%, and most likely matured in refill casks. Despite there being no such declaration on the packaging or label, this is most definitely non-chill filtered and naturally coloured. These bottlings seem to have had a short lifespan, sadly, and this is not something that you're likely to ever see on the shelves at your regular whisky bar or bottle shop. In fact they're also scarce on the usual European auction websites, which is saying something. How did I bring myself to open such a special find and such a rarity, you ask? Well, why not! I do sometimes struggle to open some bottles, particularly those that I know I won't be able to replace, but the desire & curiosity always tend to get the better of me. So here we are!
Bottled 2008, and discontinued the same year. Presumably matured in refill casks, non-chill filtered and natural colour.
Colour: Very pale gold.
Nose: Grassy, sweet (from spirit, not cask) and coastal. Very Caol Ila. Salty smoked BBQ pork with extra salt, green grassy malt, lemon pepper and smoked red chilli flakes (chipotle). Hints of crisp red apple, dry aniseed (fennel?) and sweet shellfish.
Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Oily & rich. A little heat, but I wouldn't call it rough or harsh - it is 61.6% to be fair!
Taste: Clean cooking oil, lemon pepper and smoked chilli flakes again. Lovely big chunky peat that alternates between spicy, dry & earthy and sweet & oily peat. Dry aniseed, fruit syrup sweetness along with that BBQ smoked meat. Very slight flashes of dry honey and subtle floral vanilla around the edges.
Finish: Medium-long length. Grassy malt, oily sweet peat, dry aniseed and smoked pork. Sea salt, a slight touch of of roasted root vegetables, smoked chilli flakes and lemon zest infused in that clean cooking oil.
Score: 4 out of 5.
Notes: Delicious. Why did they discontinue this series?? It's just not fair! I imagine it was due to pressure on the blending stocks at the time, so they had to slim down the range - and that slimming left us with just two core range official bottlings, remember. Which is a shame. If you've not had the pleasure, a cask strength refill cask Caol Ila is something like the lovechild of a Lagavulin 12-year old and a Port Charlotte 10-year old. The oily, sweet, peaty & coastal notes tying in with the BBQ smoked meat and smoked chilli. All very Islay, and all very Caol Ila. That grassy malt, coastal saltiness, smoked pork and and spirit-led sweetness are the hallmarks of a good example of what this distillery can do when it's allowed to shine. It's a rounder, richer example than many of the independent bottlings that I've come across, but without any overt cask influence - which is no bad thing at all.
This cask strength Caol Ila absolutely belongs on the upper shelves with the Islay heavyweights, and - discounting the unpeated releases - it's a bit of a shame that the same spot now goes to independent bottlers, when this and other official bottlings (e.g. the Feis Ile and Distillery Exclusive releases) clearly shows that the distillery's owners can easily do just as well. Let's hope that Diageo reconsider at some point in the future and fill that gap in this great distillery's official offerings. Wouldn't it be great to see a peated cask strength Caol Ila sitting in the Special Releases line-up, alongside the Lagavulin and Talisker examples that are kicking so many goals lately. We can only hope!
Cheers!
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete