Caol Ila 31 Years Old 1988 Cask #225 (Connoisseurs Choice)

This Caol Ila was bottled by the Elgin house Gordon and MacPhail, a 31 year old, distilled in 1988, from cask 225, bottled at 51.4%, one of 518 bottles. Caol Ila is the smoky backbone of the Johnnie Walker blends. Its peated character is built on malt smoked to a medium level of phenols.

It was distilled in tall stills that lend the smoke an oily lightness, for an oily smoke that leans to lemon and brine. A first fill sherry cask drove a deep, figgy, nutty character. In its ethereal years the malt is waxy and oxidative, faded esters and a touch of sotolon (maple, spice) over the merest whisper of peat. The peat here is medium rather than heavy, so fruit and smoke share the glass. The cool Islay air gives a slow, steady maturation by the shore. The malt is medium peated, giving a cleaner smoke than the south shore Islays. Years in oak round the smoke, the peat mellowing while the brine stays.

At cask strength 51.4% it is muscular. Smoke, grapefruit and a maritime salt, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Lemon, olive oil and a soft ash run through the middle. A long maritime smoke closes it. This is a lemony, coastal Islay single malt.