Caol Ila 9 Years Old 2011 Cask #2 (Signatory)

Single Cask Seasons – Winter 2020

700ml / 52.6%

Single Malt

$125

Drawn by the Pitlochry bottler Signatory Vintage, a 9 year old Caol Ila, at 52.6%. Clean peat smoke meets lemon zest and a coastal salt, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. It stands at Port Askaig, facing Jura across the Sound. It is the most independently bottled of all the Islay malts. This is a versatile Islay single malt from Port Askaig.

In stock

Available

SKU CIL891 Categories Caol Ila, Islay, Scottish Whisky, Whiskey Brand: Caol Ila

Description

This Caol Ila was bottled by the Pitlochry bottler Signatory Vintage, a 9 year old, distilled in 2011, from cask 2, bottled at 52.6%, one of 824 bottles. Caol Ila is the lighter, more elegant face of Islay smoke. A ferry crosses the Sound from Port Askaig to Jura and the mainland.

The spirit was worked from peated barley through the distillery's tall stills, for an oily smoke that leans to lemon and brine. A sherry cask wrapped the spirit in dried fruit and a nutty depth. In its extractive youth the spirit takes vanillin vanilla and lactone coconut quickly, the peat phenols vivid and lemony. The medium peating leaves a smoke that is firm but never heavy. The oily texture comes from the spirit cut, the cask adding depth around it. Maturation by the sea gives the malt its mineral, sea spray character. A few weeks each year the distillery runs an unpeated, Highland style spirit.

Bottled at a cask strength 52.6%, it is intense. Smoked lemon, brine and a green olive note, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. A maritime salt and a lemon lift run through it. A long, coastal finish carries a peaty warmth. This is a refined, citrus driven Islay smoke.