Caol Ila 12 Years Old 1996 Cask #16103 (G&M)

This Caol Ila was bottled by the Elgin house Gordon and MacPhail, a 12 year old, distilled in 1996, from cask 16103, bottled at 58.4%, one of 275 bottles. Caol Ila is prized for a smoke that leans to lemon and olive oil rather than tar. Diageo's Special Releases have featured both peated and unpeated Caol Ila.

Here the spirit was worked from peated barley through the distillery's tall stills, for a clean, coastal, oily make. It rested in ex-Bourbon oak, the wood adding only a light vanilla. Through the integration phase spirit and wood marry, vanillin settling into a rounded vanilla as the guaiacol phenols mellow into a softer smoke. The clean, oily spirit takes cask flavour well while holding its citrus and smoke. The clean spirit shows the cask clearly, which is why it suits so many wood types. The cool Islay air gives a slow, steady maturation by the shore.

At cask strength 58.4% it is muscular. Smoked lemon, brine and a green olive note, with a quiet vanilla under the smoke. Lemon, olive oil and a soft ash run through the middle. Ash, lemon and brine draw out the close. This is a maritime, lemony Islay single malt.