In early February of this year, The West Coast Office (The WCO) flew in for a site visit, because as is usually the case, the two-man team that is The East Coast Office (i.e. Limpd and Yours Truly) were slacking and needed to be whipped back into shape. Knowing that we'd need to do some ass-kissing, we loaded up the social calendar and kept The WCO well fed and well hydrated during his visit.
Being the classy gent that he is, The WCO did not arrive empty-handed and gifted us a bottle of single cask, barrel strength Caol Ila whisky. This particular independent bottling comes from Berry Bros. & Rudd and clocks in at a whopping 55% ABV. We like whisky with a "5" in it, so given that this one has two 5s in it, we were particularly excited to give it a taste.
During The WCO's second night in town, we arranged for a visit to The Batcave, AKA Mark Gillespie of WhiskyCast fame's whisky basement. So as not to arrive empty-handed, we decided to bring the Caol Ila with us. Cause you know, we like to share. As is usually the case when like-minded folks gather together, a good time was had by all and we sampled many a delicious dram.
If you're familiar with the WhiskyCast website (and if you're not, you really should be! Click here to pay it a visit), then you're well aware that Mark has hundreds of tasting notes available on his site. During our visit, he was kind enough to review this Caol Ila and had the following to say about it:
This 11-year-old single cask bottling was released in 2019, and the nose has notes of peat smoke, heather, grilled citrus, and a touch of brine. The taste is smoky and peppery with a good balance between peatiness and white pepper and touches of cinnamon, lemon zest, and brine in the background. The long finish has gently fading spices with a good peatiness and a slightly medicinal character. Very nice! Score: 93 pointsA 93! That's mighty high praise from a man that is not so easily impressed. To find out if we were equally impressed by this beast of a whisky, click the play button on the following video:
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Categories: Booze Banter, Booze Dancing TV, Booze Review, Caol Ila
Tagged as: Berry Bros. & Rudd, Caol Ila, Review, Reviews, Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Whiskey, Whiskey review, Whisky
