Weekday Whisky Reviews: Islay Madness; Caol Ila Galore, Octomore — Kilchoman!

4 min readMar 27, 2020

Caol Ila G&M 1990 29 Yr / 51.7% / $250

This is a Caol Ila distilled in 1990 and bottled 12 Jul 2019 for the Taiwan market. Bottle 19 of 219, under the Connoisseur’s Choice label. It is cask strength, non-Chill filtered, and natural colour, as you would expect with a single cask offering of this age.

Color: deep golden
Nose: oakey, dunnage warehouse, pine and peat, nutmeg, and dragonfruit
Taste: oak, smoke, quite a bit of vanilla, a little pepper and beef jerky
Finish: long, quite peaty, with charcoal and tropical fruits

This is a Caol Ila bottled at its prime, and at cask strength. Once you get much past 30 years I find they get too oakey, but this is just about perfect. It tastes old but not stale!

Rating: 93/100

Ben Nevis 19 Liquid Treasures 1997 / 51.9% / $200?

Here we have a Ben Nevis (the powerhouse of Japan’s blends) distilled in 1997, bottled 2016 from an ex-bourbon hogshead. This was imported to Japan by Acornsquare; there is no mention of a single cask, cask numbers, or size of the outturn.

Color: blonde
Nose: very nutty, a funky earthy aroma, pecans, vanilla ice cream
Taste: super malty, estery, banana bread, unsalted sunflower seeds
Finish: really long and pleasant, like eating a nutty choco

I can’t really describe this Ben Nevis well, but it’s complex and tasty; I’d buy it again =]

Rating: 86/100

Caol Ila 7 Grand Vin Expressions 2011 / 59.3% / $90

This is a Caol Ila 2011, cask #900065, aged for seven years in unspecified casks, and finished in a Margaux Claret cask, also for an unspecified period of time. I have never tasted Margaux wine before but Google tells me it’s a quite expensive Bordeaux domaine. This was done for Whisk-E, the Japanese bottler.

Color: amber
Nose: intense peat, vicious salt, latex, tannins, a low hint of charcoal smoke
Taste: hot, phenolic young Caol Ila, dry red wine; surprisingly, a creamy center
Finish: volcanic ash and unrelenting peat, underlying notes of raisins

I have hard time for super-young Caol Ila; this cask has just a slightest touch of the cask they put it in. I wish this was just a pre-release sample, and they finished it for another 5,6 years in the wine cask.

Rating: 74/100

Octomore Rest and Be Thankful 7 2008 / 63.9% / $150

This SUPER HEAVILY PEATED Octomore is non-chill-filtered, and natural colour at cask strength. It was distilled on 19/03/2008 from Cask No 2008000908 and left to sit in French Oak until it was bottled on 6th May 2015. It is bottle #124 of 316.

Color: light brown
Nose: vegetal, lemons, iodine and ocean breeze, spring sunlight
Taste: incredibly oily, vanilla creme, sliced tart mikan oranges, hot spa towers; a hint of young phenols
Finish: medium, hints of the citrus fruit, some vanilla

I’m a bit unhappy with the cork, which is coming a bit apart…

I’m very happy with the spirit! This might only be 7 years old, but it’s got the huge peatiness of Octomore coupled with the lushness of a French Oak cask. I think it’s not quite good enough to stand alongside the perfection that is other Octomore OBs, but it’s very very close.

Rating: 87/100

Kilchoman Port Cask 2018 / 50% / $120

This is the 2018 edition of Kilchoman, matured in Port casks. One of 10,000, non-chill filtered and natural colour.

I’ve always liked Islay in Port — how does this stack up?

Color: russet
Nose: stableyards, sweet wine, rotting moss, and alcohol
Taste: rich and sweet, tawny port, blueberry jam and butter
Finish: vanilla, a little oakiness; short

This is quite lovely; the port influence works very well with Kilchoman spirit. It’s a sweet, relaxing dram. It’s downsides are a lack of complexity and a bit of age to round out the rough bits.

Rating: 82/100