Caol Ila 8 Years Old 2006 Cask #308724 (C&S Dram Collection)

The bottler C&S Dram Collection selected this Caol Ila, an 8 year old, distilled in 2006, from cask 308724, bottled at 46%, one of 282 bottles. Caol Ila was rebuilt in the 1970s into the large distillery it is today. Its spirit also feeds blends such as Bell's and Black Bottle.

Here the spirit was run from peated malt through tall stills on Loch nam Ban water, giving a clean, lemony peat. It was matured in refill ex-Bourbon oak, a soft vanilla beneath the spirit. These first years are extractive, the oak giving lactones as coconut and vanillin as vanilla beneath a sharp, citrussy smoke. Long ageing turns the young, sharp peat into a soft, coastal smoke. Much of the spirit leaves the island by sea to mature on the mainland. The spirit's high notes of lemon and grass survive even long maturation. The peat here is medium rather than heavy, so fruit and smoke share the glass.

At 46% it is smooth and clean. A clean ashy smoke with lime and brine, with a creamy oak note. Smoked lemon and sea salt build over an oily body. A long maritime smoke closes it. This is the elegant, lighter side of Islay.