Pineapple

A new independent bottler has appeared! We all know Mark Watt from his days at Cadenhead of course, but he has recently gone solo with a brand new… err… brand – with a little help from crowdfunding. Watt Whisky, or more officially the Campbeltown Whisky Company Ltd. The first casks have just been bottled and can be found at your local liquor store. The first one I try – the rest will follow, be assured – is this young Caol Ila. I simply couldn’t wait…

Aha! Wonderful nose on wet rocks, chalk, fresh crab, woodsmoke and some vanilla, but the top note is unmistakably pineapple! After some air a gust of sea breeze appears and the peat becomes more outspoken. Some band aids and lime appear. Nice.

Pretty oily with lots of soot, vanilla, sea salt and pepper that precede the citrus fruit, while the pineapple is pushed to the back. You can actually taste the sea! It evolves towards a textbook example of Caol Ila, just the way I like it: clean, chiseled and salty.

The finish last and last, is very smoky with both a sweet and salty note.

Sturdy fellow, this Caol Ila. And while it is a safe bet, for Coal Ila never disappoints, I’m happy to have added this bottle to my cabinet. Bring on the winter!

From Whiskyfun,

Caol Ila 11 yo 2009/2020 (57.4%, Watt Whisky, hogshead, 303 bottles)
Colour: white wine. Nose: a slightly lighter and breezier style. Lots of fresh sea air, crab sticks, wet beach pebbles, gorse, starched linens, bath salts and things like chalk, putty and antiseptic on gauze. Pristine, pure, almost irritatingly consistent Caol Ila. With water: deeper and sootier, more things like rope, puffer smoke, anchovies and a little kelp. Mouth: lemon juice, sheep wool oils, mineral oil, pink sea salt and kippers drizzled in brine and lemon juice. Oysters, ink, seawater… you get the picture. It’s basically one of these rather narrow Caol Ilas that displays an extremely pure and chiselled profile focussed on coastal and seashore aspects but with a quieter peat smoke influence. If I put on my ‘Serge Valentin moustache’ for a moment I’d probably say ‘millimetric!’. With water: creosote, black pepper, smoked teas with lemon, pasta water, smoked herbs and more medical things like gauze and TCP. Finish: long, more powerfully smoky, tarry, salty, peppery and with iodine and pure seawater again. Comments: This one rewards water with a little more complexity I think. Yet another superb and very pure Caol Ila, I like the unabashed ‘coastalness’ on display here.
SGP: 356 - 88 points.