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USA SHIPPING FROM $28
EU SHIPPING FROM €16
$167
This Caol Ila, the Elgin house Gordon and MacPhail, at 59.6%. Smoke, sea spray and an oily lemon fill the glass, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Most of its make goes into the Johnnie Walker blends. Caol Ila is the largest distillery on Islay. It stands at Port Askaig, facing Jura across the Sound. This is a finely judged Islay single malt.
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Description
A Caol Ila drawn by the Elgin house Gordon and MacPhail, distilled in 2008, from cask 312070, bottled at 59.6%, one of 623 bottles. Caol Ila is the smoky backbone of the Johnnie Walker blends. Diageo's Special Releases have featured both peated and unpeated Caol Ila.
Distilled from medium peated malt in tall copper stills, giving a clean, lemony peat. A sherry cask wrapped the spirit in dried fruit and a nutty depth. In integration the oak lactones (coconut) and vanillin (vanilla) knit with the phenols, the whole growing rounder and oilier. Olive oil and lemon sit at the heart of the Caol Ila character. The peat here is medium rather than heavy, so fruit and smoke share the glass. Its peated character is built on malt smoked to a medium level of phenols. Much of the spirit leaves the island by sea to mature on the mainland.
Undiluted at 59.6%, it is powerful. A fresh peat smoke over oily lemon, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. The palate is oily and smoky, with a green citrus lift. It finishes smoky, oily and bright. This is a clean, smoky Islay single malt from Caol Ila.
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