Caol Ila Smoking Blackberries (The Vintage Malt Whisky Co Ltd.)

The bottler The Vintage Malt Whisky Co Ltd selected this Caol Ila, from cask 255, bottled at 44.5%, one of 660 bottles. Caol Ila is the lighter, more elegant face of Islay smoke. Water falls to the distillery from Loch nam Ban in the hills above.

Here the spirit was distilled in tall stills that lend the smoke an oily lightness, for a clean, coastal, oily make. A red wine cask lent berry fruit and a dry, tannic edge. With no age statement, the oak has given up its vanillin as vanilla and its oak lactones as coconut, set against the lemony guaiacol of the peat smoke. The make balances phenolic smoke against a bright, oily citrus. Active wood frames the smoke without smothering the citrus beneath. The medium peating leaves a smoke that is firm but never heavy. Long ageing turns the young, sharp peat into a soft, coastal smoke. Olive oil and lemon sit at the heart of the Caol Ila character.

Bottled at 44.5%, it is rounded. A clean maritime smoke with lemon and brine, with plum and red berry from the cask. The texture is oily, the smoke threaded with citrus. The close is long, smoke over a citrus lift. This is the smoky malt of the Sound of Islay.