Caol Ila 8 Years Old 2015 Cask #318515 (The Vintage Malt Whisky Co Ltd.)

The bottler The Vintage Malt Whisky Co Ltd released this Caol Ila, an 8 year old, distilled in 2015, from cask 318515, bottled at 52.5%, one of 330 bottles. Caol Ila has been bottled at every age from young and fierce to old and waxy. From a small Victorian works it grew into one of Scotland's biggest malt distilleries.

Here the spirit was made from medium peated malt for a clean, smoky spirit, for the clean island smoke prized by blenders. Refill American oak let the spirit speak, adding a quiet honeyed note. At an extractive age eugenol lends a clove note and oak lactones a coconut sweetness, the guaiacol smoke bright and fresh. The peat here is medium rather than heavy, so fruit and smoke share the glass. Years in oak round the smoke, the peat mellowing while the brine stays. A ferry crosses the Sound from Port Askaig to Jura and the mainland.

At a natural 52.5% it is full and oily. Peat smoke, citrus and a soft oil, with a light vanilla and a touch of coconut. It is clean and coastal, the peat and lemon to the fore. The smoke fades slow over citrus and a mineral tang. This is the smoky malt of the Sound of Islay.