Caol Ila 17 Years Old 1969 (Connoisseurs Choice)

A Caol Ila drawn by the Elgin house Gordon and MacPhail, distilled in 1969, bottled at 40%. Caol Ila makes a clean, maritime malt on the east coast of Islay. The original Victorian distillery was almost entirely rebuilt in the modern era.

It was distilled with a long fermentation and a clean cut, for a clean, coastal, oily make. It was matured in refill ex-Bourbon oak, a soft vanilla beneath the spirit. At oxidative maturity vanillin and lactones are fully expressed and ellagitannin tannins lend a polished, drying frame to the smoke. Active wood frames the smoke without smothering the citrus beneath. The peat here is medium rather than heavy, so fruit and smoke share the glass. Smoked citrus and a saline minerality are the hallmarks of the make. A clean smoke and a coastal salt define the distillery style. From a small Victorian works it grew into one of Scotland's biggest malt distilleries.

At 40% it is clean and coastal. A clean ashy smoke with lime and brine, with vanilla and a soft caramel from the wood. It is clean and coastal, the peat and lemon to the fore. A long, briny finish ends on lemon and soft smoke. This is a clean, smoky Islay single malt from Caol Ila.