Caol Ila 12 Years Old 2006 Poisonous Frog Series (The Daily Dram)

This Caol Ila was bottled by the bottler The Daily Dram, a 12 year old, distilled in 2006, bottled at 52.4%. Caol Ila was rebuilt in the 1970s into the large distillery it is today. Diageo's Special Releases have featured both peated and unpeated Caol Ila.

This was drawn off the distillery's six tall stills from peated barley, giving a clean, lemony peat. A second fill bourbon cask kept the oak in the background. By the integrating teens harsher congeners fade and ethyl esters build, lending a riper citrus over the softening peat. Caol Ila's smoke leans to lemon, olive oil and brine rather than tar or iodine. A ferry crosses the Sound from Port Askaig to Jura and the mainland. The clean spirit shows the cask clearly, which is why it suits so many wood types. The tall stills and a high cut give a lighter, cleaner spirit than the southern Islays. Malt comes from the Port Ellen maltings on the south of the island.

At its natural 52.4% it is concentrated. A lemony Islay smoke over olive oil, with a light bourbon sweetness. A maritime salt and a lemon lift run through it. The finish runs oily, smoky and clean. This is the smoky malt of the Sound of Islay.