Caol Ila 10 Years Old 2008 Cask #10 (Signatory)

A 10 year old Caol Ila, this distilled in 2008 from the Pitlochry bottler Signatory Vintage, from cask 10, bottled at 46%, one of 891 bottles. Caol Ila is prized for a smoke that leans to lemon and olive oil rather than tar. A ferry crosses the Sound from Port Askaig to Jura and the mainland.

Here the spirit was made from medium peated malt for a clean, smoky spirit, for an oily smoke that leans to lemon and brine. Maturation in an Oloroso cask laid dried fruit over the make. By the integrating teens harsher congeners fade and ethyl esters build, lending a riper citrus over the softening peat. The medium peating leaves a smoke that is firm but never heavy. Its spirit also feeds blends such as Bell's and Black Bottle. Its peated character is built on malt smoked to a medium level of phenols. The spirit's high notes of lemon and grass survive even long maturation.

At 46% it is clean and coastal. A fresh peat smoke over oily lemon, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. A sea salt and an olive oil note sit under the smoke. The close is long, smoke over a citrus lift. This is a clean coastal malt with a lemony peat.