Caol Ila 7 Years Old 2007 Cask #315321 (Signatory)

A 7 year old Caol Ila from the Pitlochry bottler Signatory Vintage, from cask 315321, bottled at 46%, one of 314 bottles. Caol Ila is the lighter, more elegant face of Islay smoke. It was founded by Hector Henderson and later passed to the Distillers Company.

Here the spirit was distilled from medium peated malt in tall copper stills, for a clean, coastal, oily make. Years in ex-Bourbon wood lent a soft vanilla and a coastal calm. These first years are extractive, the oak giving lactones as coconut and vanillin as vanilla beneath a sharp, citrussy smoke. Smoked citrus and a saline minerality are the hallmarks of the make. The peat here is medium rather than heavy, so fruit and smoke share the glass. Malt comes from the Port Ellen maltings on the south of the island. Its peated character is built on malt smoked to a medium level of phenols.

At an easy 46% it is gentle. A bonfire smoke with lemon and sea salt, with a quiet vanilla under the smoke. It is clean and coastal, the peat and lemon to the fore. A long, briny finish ends on lemon and soft smoke. This is Caol Ila's lighter, maritime Islay smoke.