Amongst the Islay distilleries, Caol Ila is generally known to be one of the lighter whiskies – both in terms of its peat and colour as they typically stick with ex-bourbon barrels for maturing. This leads to generally quite an approachable balanced peat dram. And for all those folks who love the light peat in Jonny Walker? Caol Ila is likely responsible!

All of this made it a perfect choice for our final whisky in our evening exploring different dimensions of single malts. I already sampled this particular Gordon & MacPhail Discovery series expression at Paris Whisky Live. It was just a teasing taste, yet enough to be confident in adding it as the “peat” element in our 1st Nurnberg International Whisky Tasting evening.

So what did we think?

Caol Ila 13 year 43% 

• Colour – Old gold (0.6)
• Nose – Initially greeted by wet wood and embers, then warmed into smoked pork belly, maple bacon, and cured sweetmeats. After some time, the fruit came more to the fore with glazed banana, roasted pineapple, sweet grass
• Palate – Smoked meat, soft, gentle peat, fruity
• Finish – Long sweet cinnamon and lightly smoky
• Water – Personal choice – for some, this helps open up the whisky to enhance the fruitiness, for others, it was not needed at all!

We had a few peat skeptics in the room… many of whom were pleasantly surprised at the subtle sweet peat and balance of this whisky – cured meats glazed with fruit were much more approachable than some “in your face” bold peat “bonfire” and “iodine” whiskies!

For those of us familiar with the distillery – it is what we have come to expect – a balanced peat, the kind of dram that invites you to slow down, curl up into a comfy chair, put on some good music, and just relax, slowly sipping and savouring.

What do the good folks over at Gordon & Macphail have to say about this expression?

Sweet vanilla and dry cured meat aromas. Peat smoke umdertones are complemented by banana and apricot.

Ripe banana, kiwi and vibrant hints of fresh citrus, leading to a long, sweet and smoky finish.

With this peat expression, we closed our inaugural tasting session in which we explored the impact of cask (ex-bourbon and ex-sherry) and peat in the Gordon & Macphail Discovery series!

Our evening explored a quartet from Gordon & Macphail’s Discovery series.

• Green (ex-bourbon): Aultmore 10 year 43% 
• Purple (ex-sherry): Miltonduff 10 year 43% 
• Purple (ex-sherry): Glenrothes 11 year 43% 

Around the room, we had slightly different preferences – however if you pushed me to rank, I would probably put the Miltonduff 1st, followed by the Aultmore, then this Caol Ila, finishing with the Glenrothes.

What additional Caol Ila tastings over the years? There have been a few – mostly from independent bottlers:

• 8 year (June 2008 / May 2017) 58.3% (North Star Series 002)
• 8 year (2009/2018) 59.2% (Distiller’s Art)
• 8 year “Provenance” 46% (Douglas Laing)
• 12 year 43% (Original)
• 12 year (2006) 54.6% (North Star Series 005)
• 12 year (1997/2009) 43% (G&MP)
• 15 year (2003/2018) Hogshead Cask #302465 54.2% (LMdW Artist #8)
• 16 year (1969) 40% (Original)
• 25 year (1996/2022) 1st fill Sherry Butt #16074, 59.2% (G&MP)
• 31 years (2 May 1979 / March 2011) 46% Bottle 150 (Mackillop’s Choice)
• 33 year (1989/2018) 52.8% (G&MP)
• 36 year (1980/2016) 52.3% (Cadenheads)

Curious to know more? Why not follow Whisky Lady on:

• WordPress https://whiskylady.co/
• FaceBook Whisky Lady in India – https://www.facebook.com/WhiskyLadyIN 
• Twitter @WhiskyLadyIN