Caol Ila 8 Years Old 2012 Cask #DL 15289 (Provenance)

An 8 year old Caol Ila from the Glasgow bottler Douglas Laing, from cask DL 15289, bottled at 46%, one of 390 bottles. Caol Ila takes its name from the Gaelic for the Sound of Islay. Long fermentations build the fruity, citrus notes that sit beneath the smoke.

This was worked from peated barley through the distillery's tall stills, building a refined, maritime peat. A tired refill cask added little but time, the make speaking clearly. Young and extractive, the cask sheds vanillin (vanilla) and toasted hemicellulose sugars (a light caramel) fast, the phenols still sharp and medicinal. Smoked citrus and a saline minerality are the hallmarks of the make. Caol Ila's smoke leans to lemon, olive oil and brine rather than tar or iodine. Time in oak deepens the oily body while the maritime smoke stays bright. The original Victorian distillery was almost entirely rebuilt in the modern era.

At 46% it is clean and coastal. Smoked lemon, brine and a green olive note, with vanilla and a honeyed edge from the cask. Smoke, lemon and a saline minerality fill the middle. The finish is clean, smoky and maritime. This is a clean, smoky Islay single malt from Caol Ila.