Our original tasting club in Mumbai has a tradition of sampling blind. We also try to explore something new – which sometimes leads to amazing new discoveries and sometimes disappointments.
What this means is trying familiar distilleries but in new avatars. In this case, we explored an old favourite Caol Ila from Hunter Laing’s newer Distiller’s Art bottling line of Single Casks. Then to add an even further special twist, these particular bottles were picked up from a particular store at cask strength.
Caol Ila 8 year (2009 / 2018) 59.2%, Sherry Hogshead, Bottle 173 of 180
- Nose – Varnish, sharp, astringent, light banana, honey and caramel, vanilla, overall quite young
- Palate – A bit harsh, raw, salty, spice kick, very piquant, hint of bitter coffee, chocolate
- Finish – A warm burn, jaggery, spice, salty butter lingers… long and tingling
We suspected it was likely an ex-bourbon cask and definitely was high alcohol with an ‘in your face’ quality. Powerful and unbalanced… so we added water – a generous dollop. What a difference water made!
- On the nose, it brightened it up, revealing lemon, floral honey.
- Then on the palate, rounded it out, smoothing it into buttery leather, old wood and had much more depth
- Suddenly it had an insane long finish!
While there were clear hints of peat before adding water, there were just too many forward elements competing for attention. With the water, it was truly a different dram.
What else did we explore?
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