🥃 Whisky Auctioneer

A bit of a beast, this 16-year-old Caol Ila.

I love the BF bottlings. 2019 and 2021 were a dream. Well, this time it's Islay. Admittedly, I'm not a big CI fan, but at least I'm 16 years old and if I look at the colour, bourbon cask..? This could be a delicious fruity-smoky thing. No, not really, this is different. Unfortunately not mine this time. However, it gets better, rounder and more appealing from sip to sip. I go from initially 82 to 85P. But it seems the odd BF vintages are the ones I like. 71-80 – Fine, like to drink by time

Nice ashy smoke, sticky with coal and soot. Mineral chips, quartz, granite and slate. In the background, fruits give a soft side to the whole. Syrupy caramel, peach juice, clementine, green apple. Nice refreshing iodine. Adding water brings out the licorice. Creamy vanilla. On the palate, peat and iodine with a little honey, and immediately spices, cumin, nutmeg, cloves. Damp wood, mustard, grilled meat. Long and quite powerful finish, at the same time very peaty, mineral, a bit metallic, bark, resin, charcoal, heather, rich earth. Roasted chestnuts. This is a very good Caol Ila, the distillate is hardly disturbed by the influence of the cask, which gives a nice fruitiness. https://ilikesky2020.blogspot.com/2023/07/black-friday-2006-16-yo-bottled-2022.html

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Crisp and maritime with plenty of oceanic brine and mellow notions of diesel engines and dirty shop rags— perhaps a bit like sitting near the engine while on a deep sea fishing cruise. Smoked kippers and muscles provided a bit of meat to some of the peppery sea with background notions of Tiger balm and muscle rubs. Medium-bodied and oily on the palate, the flavor profile offered more charred wood and ash upfront with pickling spices— caraway, celery seed, mustard seed. Brine and pepper sat further in with burned parchment paper and muscle balms. The finish was medium-length with fireplace ash, toasted spices, peppercorn, and more subtle brine. Clean and approachable, this was a classic Caol Ila with plenty of charred wood, ash, maritime brine, and medicinal herbs and spices. It had a good mouthfeel and the spirit was well-integrated. There was nothing off about the malt beyond an occasional dash of something chemical that came with the herbal and medicinal muscle rubs. Overall, a tasty Caol Ila, though I prefer them a bit fruitier.

IBs are a lottery. Caol Ila, 16 years old and cask strength, at a more or less reasonable price? Too good to be true. Main notes: Strong organic peat, a lot of seaweed/ seafood/ kippery, Caol Ila's signature lemon and an absurd amount of BBQ. All this immerse in very strong herbal notes (mint, grass) that pervade everything. Pretty unique, not gonna lie. Secondary notes: Tar, mineral notes, iodine, green apple, nutmeg. Extremely pale, more transparent than white wine. It spent a long time in very inactive casks, which could have been a recipe for greatness if these casks weren't so absurdly charred . The charcoal/campfire flavors are too powerful (and, in that regard, it reminds me of none other than Talisker). This overwhelming oak smoke don't really let the rest of the notes shine. Plainly said, this is actually an unbalanced whisky that ruined a potentially magnificent bottling: it's ash, then more ash, then some fascinating organic, maritime and herbal Caol Ila, and then, more ash. But, the truth being said, the typical Caol Ila profile compensates for it, the texture and intensity are nice, and the age made it smooth and very easy to casually sip, to the point it doesn't even need water, so I'm not gonna complain. It's a powerful and smooth liquid that can deal with its role as a daily sipper just fine, but that it's too expensive. Caol Ila seems omnipresent in the market right now. There are so many IB's I'm pretty sure it is impossible to keep track of them, let alone try them all. In my opinion, regular Caol Ila 12 is a lovely whisky [92/100] and young and unpretentious CS IBs are absolutely insane, like Port Askaig 100º [97/100] and Mac-Talla Mara [96/100], that are among my favorites of all time. This bottle, on the other hand, is trying to answer the question "what would happen if we left Caol Ila mature in deeply charred and very tired casks for a long time?", and the answer is that you would get an uninspiring but very smooth mix of Caol Ila and Talisker. Does it work? Well, it almost works for me. Sometimes it even kind of works. Most people that have tried it seem to love it, I guess it is just not for me. But, overall, it's decent stuff.

A good middle aged peaty caol ila.

Middle aged Caol Ila is always a treat. This one is a bit too simple for my taste, but it does the job. Good stuff on lemons and delicate peat, a characteristic oily mouthfeel and warming finish. Well executed.

???????? Smells: Medium to low irritation, smoked honey, brown sugar, lemon and red bean, too typical Calrilla, clean and nothing special, not very strong in peat flavor 25.8/30 ???? Taste: There is no irritation in the mouth. The red bean paste, peat, wood ash, smoke, salty minerals and cinnamon are not watery at all. It is just the Carlilla in my mind 26/30 ???? Aftertaste: Peat smoke some nuts lemon a bit mineral salty 26/30 ???? Overall: It’s so typical of Caliler, peat supplement 77.8/90

Yeah, no, a lot of smoke about nothing. There's hardly any sign of the spirit or barrel, but there's a full load of smoke right from the start. Not much to gain here. 80/100 or 4/10