Caol Ila

Region: Islay

Owner: Diageo

Founded: 1846

Caol Ila is a remarkably consistent distillery and although it has been owned by Diageo (then Distillers Companies Ltd) since 1927 it hasn’t really marketed it very much, until the early 2000’s when, after languishing in its Flora and Fauna range of bottling it was finally bottled under its own label. This I suppose isn’t particularly surprising as the bulk of its 6,500,000 litre production was destined for the hands of the blenders that needed a good quality peated and unpeated, costal malt for their blend. The main recipient of their malt whisky, is of course, Johnnie Walker.

This versatility with regards to the peating level of its whisky is both its strong point and its downfall, although I’m probably being a little over dramatic here. I mean I’ve given it an A rating! What I mean is that when you purchase a bottle of Caol Ila, you are not totally sure just what you are getting – peat wise, that is.

With regards to the distillery bottling that is fairly obvious, the 12, 18, 25 year old and the distiller’s edition are all produced from peated malt, although it was only around 2005 that Diageo released a distillery bottling of its unpeated malt, but again that is rather obvious to spot!

The problem is with the independent bottling. I have tasted no end of independent bottling over the years, and they have ranged from extremely heavily peated to practically unpeated, without any indication of the label as to how peaty that bottling is. I suppose that, at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter, because, as I said, it is a very constant distillery in terms of the quality of its spirit and its casks. Just see if you can spot the word ‘sulphur’ in any of the notes below. Here’s a hint, it only appears once and that was probably a rouge wine cask!

The other reason why I rate the distillery so highly is that it was one of the first single malt whiskies I tasted after I started in the business in 2000. That bottling was the Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseurs Choice Caol Ila 1981 (16 year old) 62.7% and it blew me away, latterly and metaphorically, well it was 62.7% abv after all! Anyway, months afterwards I couldn’t help but extol the virtues of Caol Ila and sold their bottles with the fever of a missionary!

Caol Ila is also a very flexible whisky and seems to be one of the few that really can be bottled at any age. Young it can be intense, salty and peaty, yet with time it can age majestically, developing that classic, old Islay violet character. So go ahead and grab a bottle and play ‘Caol Ila Roulette!’

(Image Copyright James Mortimer Photography)