Caol Ila 18 Year Old / 43%
Tasted neat
I realized I haven’t reviewed the Caol Ila 18 standard bottling yet, so let’s remedy that! This is (a) Caol Ila (b) 18 years old, and bottled at 43%. It is most likely chill-filtered and coloured. On the upside, it does come with a very stately orange label!
This is a recent batch from the last couple of years.
- Color: deep copper (1.0)
- Nose: briney seaweed, salt, industrial glue, burnt cheese, a little honey
- Taste: chalky peat, burnt rubber, a hint of umami barbeque, some fennel
- Finish: quite short; tannins, salt, and peat
While quite drinkable, it’s not exactly the pleasurable experience of drinking mid-20s IB Caol Ila, which at cask strength, and probably in better than average wood, allow for more diverse flavors to come through. This is strangely quite a lot like a thinner version of the Lagavulin 16 year old!
Rating: 4/10
