Caol Ila 9 Years Old 1993 Cask #9939 (G&M)

This Caol Ila was bottled by the Elgin house Gordon and MacPhail, a 9 year old, distilled in 1993, from cask 9939, bottled at 57.2%. Caol Ila is a workhorse of the blending halls and a favourite of malt drinkers. From a small Victorian works it grew into one of Scotland's biggest malt distilleries.

The spirit was distilled with a long fermentation and a clean cut, for a smoky spirit with a citrus lift. A fresh bourbon barrel lent vanilla, coconut and a fuller body. Young and extractive, the cask sheds vanillin (vanilla) and toasted hemicellulose sugars (a light caramel) fast, the phenols still sharp and medicinal. Caol Ila's smoke leans to lemon, olive oil and brine rather than tar or iodine. A few weeks each year the distillery runs an unpeated, Highland style spirit. The warehouses are ranged along the rocky shore at the water's edge.

Bottled at a cask strength 57.2%, it is intense. Peat smoke, citrus and a soft oil, with vanilla and a honeyed edge from the cask. It is clean and coastal, the peat and lemon to the fore. The finish is long, smoky and citrussy. This is a clean coastal malt with a lemony peat.