Caol Ila 15 Year Unpeated Style (2014 Special Release)

As I drink my way through the last few samples from my friends on the Scotland Distillery Tour, I decided to take a break and open a rarer bottle of something cask strength. Digging through the bar I found this 2014 bottling from Caol Ila. Once a year they distill malt and bottle it at cask strength just to give connoisseurs a peak at something they don't normally make; unpeated whisky. This offering was originally distilled in 1998 and bottled in 2014, making it a well-aged 15 years old. It comes in at a whopping 60.4% ABV and is non-chill filtered. It's also quite pricey- I believe I paid around $160 for this bottle back in early 2016. In the tasting glass it's a beautiful, straw yellow and surprisingly oily. Lots of long legs slide around the Glencairn when you give it a hearty spin. The nose is fairly light with lots of cereal and bread notes with a wisp of herbal flowers. The oak and heat aren't all that present- even after 30min in the glass. The palate is extremely hot. There's not much to detect because it's just so damn hot. I think I get almonds and the herbal notes from the nose and even a bit of saltiness after finishing the dram. The burn from the ABV and first fill, bourbon casks really hangs around will set your tongue ablaze until you quench it with some water. To say there's a long, hot finish is quite the understatement here. Burn so good. Before finishing the entire dram I had to add water to see if there's anything else hidden in there. I gotta say that there isn't much else to it- it finishes a tiny bit sweeter, but the overall flavor profile isn't affected much at all. Overall, it's a big boy dram that doesn't necessarily get past being one dimensional and hot as Hades. It's not your typical Caol Ila and that leaves me somewhat disappointed even though I knew going in there wouldn't be any smoke or peat. I'd stick with what Caol Ila does best before buying this yearly special release again. Cheers.

Nose: Very spirity to start with but after resting for 15 minutes you can start to make out the aromas behind the ethanol. Cereal, bready, waxy and herbal notes. Some hints of baked banana, honey, orchard fruit and vanilla. Over considerable time the nose mellows and gains a creamy butterscotch aroma. Palate: Blisteringly hot arrival. Intensely spicy (hot cinnamon, black pepper and hot ginger) and also heat from the high ethanol presence. It's like chewing a handful of nails. The development is mainly on unripe fruits and peanut brittle. The texture is OK but not notable. There is an unfortunate sour note that develops in the late palate and persists into the finish. Finish: Long. Hot spiced fruit that lingers on a sour note and a hint of salt. There’s an almost mescal quality to the aftertaste. A hot and totally uncompromising style of whisky. It is on the edge of being so challenging that it is unpleasant. I found this too unfriendly to take neat and had to add quite a lot of water. Dropping it down to around 40% made it easier to taste but the profile remained the same – hot, hot, hot and hard. Tasted from a 30ml sample I’ve had laying around for a while. I would not buy a bottle of this, particularly given the price. While it is very well made, clean and crisp the character is not at all to my taste and to be honest I thought it was a bit of a mess. “Average” : 78/100 (2.75 stars)

(Pinkernells Islay Tasting Event) This one was the strangest of the six pours during an Islay tasting event. One of my all time favorite whiskies of all time is a Caol Ila 14y cask strength refill American hogshead single cask. This one here is a Caol Ila 15y cask strength refill American & European hogshead but not peated. And in the end end I was left disappointed. The nose is pretty basic with honey and apples, a bid of nutty marzipan and vanilla and a bid of pears. But everything mixed up and not very intense. The palate then is very mixed-fruity sweet with not much else. If you add water to bring it down from its whopping 63 % ABV to around 55 % you get a bid of cucumber as well as cooked egg-white. Strange. I am pretty sure the experience wasn’t as great as it would have been if I haven’t had 3 other very different drams (including strong peated ones) before. Maybe I will have a chance to try it again on a fresh palate some day. But I won’t be actively looking for it.

Aroma has a lot of leather and minerals. Some caramel in there. Palate starts out sweet and very saline, with a transition to something like anchovy, lemon zest and pepper. Light bodied, not as hot as the abv would suggest. Pretty interesting pour, probably not for everybody - not sure I've had a scotch this salty.

Un Islay pas fumé : le nez est doux, légèrement iodé. Gros kick en bouche, on sent vraiment l'alcool lorsqu'il entre en bouche. Mais peu d'arômes. Rond en bouche, mais finale décevante. On le garde sur le palais mais presque rien dans la gorge.

like driving spikes into my soft palate, then a warm, sweet aftertaste. the only sweet whisky i’ve enjoyed so far that isn’t also quite peaty. i’d buy a bottle but not before a peated imo