Caol Ila 11 Years Old 1998 Cask #12877 (G&M)

A Caol Ila drawn by the Elgin house Gordon and MacPhail, distilled in 1998, from cask 12877, bottled at 58.1%, one of 588 bottles. Caol Ila is a maritime malt, matured within sound of the sea. A few weeks each year the distillery runs an unpeated, Highland style spirit.

Here the spirit was distilled from medium peated malt in tall copper stills, giving a bright, citrus driven peat. A sherry butt held it, the wood lending raisin and walnut. By the integrating teens harsher congeners fade and ethyl esters build, lending a riper citrus over the softening peat. The oily texture comes from the spirit cut, the cask adding depth around it. It was founded by Hector Henderson and later passed to the Distillers Company. A ferry crosses the Sound from Port Askaig to Jura and the mainland. The medium peating leaves a smoke that is firm but never heavy.

Bottled at a cask strength 58.1%, it is intense. A clean ashy smoke with lime and brine, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. The oily body carries the smoke long and clean. Smoke and sea salt see out a long finish. This is a lemony, coastal Islay single malt.