A rich & tarry 14-year old single cask Caol Ila (Distillery #53) from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, selected by their Australian branch and exclusive to their Australian members!
Ah, Caol Ila. Islay's gentler giant, and surely one of the most consistent spirits produced in the Hebridean islands. Distillery owners Diageo rely on Caol Ila for a raft of their blended products, and while there are some single malt official bottlings out there it's only really the 12-year old that is easy to find, and that's bottled at 43%, chill filtered and artificially coloured. If you want a cask strength official bottling from Caol Ila you'll need to hunt down a Feis Ile Islay Festival bottling, which while generally delicious are very expensive - and more importantly they're exclusive to the distillery shop on Islay, which is more than a slight inconvenience for just about everyone on the planet. So distillery fans must turn to the independent bottlers for our fix of properly presented Caol Ila - and by "properly" I mean non-chill filtered, natural colour, and bottled at a decent strength. As consistent and underrated as the Islay giant is, it's peated spirit can be surprisingly fragile when subjected to the wrong cask treatment and/or for the wrong amount of time. While the malted barley used here is exactly the same as that used at Lagavulin, which is peated to 35 ppm and sourced from Port Ellen Maltings, everything else in the production process is completely different between the two. Caol Ila uses longer fermentation times, has taller and much larger stills that are filled to a lower level (for more reflux), are fitted with horizontal lyne arms as opposed to Lagavulin's downward angled items (giving a heavier spirit), and the spirit cuts at Caol Ila are higher and more narrow. This all gives a lighter, cleaner style of peated spirit compared to the sibling on the south of Islay.
Couple this gentler style of Islay spirit with the myriad of independent bottlings of Caol Ila out there, and it's only natural that some releases will be better than others. By veering away from the tried & true refill ex-bourbon hogshead and going for something first-fill and more exotic, you do run the risk of having your Caol Ila swamped by cask influence. Full maturation in either first-fill sherry or virgin oak would obviously be in the highest risk category, but secondary maturation or finishing can also be dangerous if you're hoping to keep that delicious Islay character intact. The best way to mark your Caol Ila as safe from excessive cask influence is to go with trusted independent bottlers that have plenty of experience with the distillery. In the newer breed of "indies" I would be looking at Thompson Bros, and Elixir Distillers (Port Askaig & Single Malts of Scotland labels), while in the "old school" I would point to the likes of Gordon & MacPhail, and of course the Scotch Malt Whisky Society - a.k.a. SMWS. It's easy to see that the SMWS has plenty of experience with Caol Ila thanks to the bottling codes on their labels; in the case of this particular Caol Ila that's 53.509. #53 is the SMWS's distillery code for Caol Ila, and the following digits are the cask number - so this bottling is the 509th single cask of Caol Ila bottled by the SMWS! That's not including their small batch bottlings or heresy single malt or blended malt releases, so the actual number would be significantly higher. Quite a few runs on the board, then! But that's just as well, because the cask treatment on this SMWS Caol Ila would - normally - have put it in that high-risk category mentioned above!
This single cask bottling of Caol Ila, SMWS code 53.509 is dubbed "Doctor Tar and The Lactones", and is an Australian exclusive release. It was distilled on the 16th of November 2010, matured in an ex-bourbon hogshead (250-litre cask) for 10-years prior to being filled into a heavily toasted first-fill French oak ex-fortified wine barrique (225-litre cask) for a further four years. That's a substantial amount of time for a secondary maturation, especially in a first-fill French oak cask. Compared to charring, toasting a cask is less aggressive, using indirect heat at lower temperatures. But what about lactones? In simple terms a lactone is a type of ester, the family of flavour compounds that are perceived as fruity notes in spirits. But lactones, as you can guess by the name (as in lactose, the sugars found in dairy products) are found in oak and can give a creaminess in texture, peachy or coconut flavours & aromas, and/or creamy & buttery notes, and are also found in oak-aged wines (e.g. the buttery notes often found in "wooded" chardonnay) and other spirits. French oak is lower in lactones than American oak, but in this case that heavy toasting process must have released more of the lactones in to the spirit. Quick side note, while not the case with this particular whisky or with Caol Ila, some malt whiskies are renowned for a different sort of lactic note that has formed during an earlier stage of the production process - lactobacillus, or lactic acid bacteria, entering the wash during fermentation, carrying over through distillation, and surviving maturation. This style of lactic note can be quite divisive, like those found in some Bruichladdich or Bladnoch whiskies for example, and is more acidic (sour) than oak lactones - ranging anywhere from a subtle dairy-like creamy note, to acidic Greek yoghurt notes, to baby vomit! It's divisive, but it can work for some spirit styles in small doses.
Doctor Tar and The Lactones is exclusive to Australian members of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS), and was selected by their Marketing Manager Adam - which must mean if any members don't like this whisky, they can contact Adam directly! Adam & Australian Branch Director Matt Bailey were kind enough to send the bottle for this review, and they've timed this release very well - it should be a perfect winter warmer! There are only 167 bottles available here - the 225-litre French oak barrique yielded only 117-litres of whisky after those four years of secondary maturation - at a natural cask strength of 59.6% ABV. As with all good independent bottlings, it is non-chill filtered and natural colour. Let's see how it goes!
SMWS 53.509 (Caol Ila) "Doctor Tar and The Lactones", 14-years old, 59.6%. Islay, Scotland.
Distilled 16/11/2010, matured in ex-bourbon hogshead for 10-years, extra maturation in first-fill heavily toasted French oak barrique for 4-years. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 167 bottles, exclusive to Australia.
Colour: Copper.
Nose: Big, rich, peaty, and definitely tarry. Fresh warm road tar, turkish coffee, soy sauce caramel - which is amazing if you haven't tried it. Touches of herbal & medicinal digestif/liqueurs around the edges - Jägermeister without the sugar? Lightly gamey and meaty too, BBQ duck with thick hoisin sauce. Thick peat smoke, and black cherry jam.
Texture: Heavy weight. Thick, oily, full-flavoured. Tarry & spicy. Tiny bit of spirit heat but hidden/integrated very well.
Taste: Big & rich. Creamy peat, more warm tar and soy sauce caramel, fatty BBQ duck with thick hoisin sauce, and more herbal & medicinal liqueur / digestif. Old school cough lozenges, and a light touch of rubber around the edges. Sweetens with more time, some burnt black cherry jam, and a touch of strong black tea.
Finish: Long length. Powerful & rich. Creamy peat & ashy smoke, more warm road tar, and burnt black cherry jam. Spicy wood embers, cough lozenges, smoky & thick hoisin sauce with fatty BBQ duck. Hint of melted milk bottle lollies (chewy foam vanilla confectionary). Warm wood spices (clove, cinnamon, aniseed). Sweet charred stone fruit & ashy peat smoke to finish.
Score: 4.5 out of 5.
Notes: Delicious. One of the best cask-driven Caol Ilas that I've had! Especially in terms of weight, texture, richness, and savoury complexity. There's just the right amount of oak and fortified wine influence that I want in this style of Caol Ila, as opposed to many other examples which had been swamped by sherry. That tarriness & spicy/herbal side in this #53 is really quite delicious. It's smoky, tarry, medicinal, lightly meaty and herbal, but it's all nicely balanced without any of those notes becoming dominant or distracting. This Caol Ila could easily pass for a good sherried Ardbeg or Laphroaig, and I don't see that as a negative - who doesn't love a good sherried Ardbeg or Laphroaig!? It's almost refreshing to see a Caol Ila showing this heavier side of Islay thanks to a less common cask treatment that has been managed well.
As predicted, a great "winter warmer" that offers plenty of character and flavour. Great value for money too if you ask me!
Cheers!
