Caol Ila 1995 SMWS 53.194

SMWS notes:

A Calmac ferry dram

Cask No. 53.194

NOSE: We’re very familiar with this distillery, and we’ve nosed dozens of SMWS samples from here over the years. This is possibly one of the most delightful, complex, and enjoyable noses from No. 53 we’ve ever encountered! It’s peaty (but not necessarily smoky); gorgeously sweet with a small hint of citrus; and it’s salty to smell. It transported us straight to the west coast of Scotland, and directly to the sandy beaches of Islay.

PALATE: Again, the complexity that was evident on the nose is here on the palate. Yes, there is peat (lots!), yes there is smoke (some), but there’s also a mineral-like stoniness, cold steel, salt spray, sweet malt, and the balancing bitterness of creosote.

FINISH: The finish gives you some insight into the higher ABV - the alcohol is peppery, bracing, and there’s a dryness from the oak, just to round things out.

COMMENTS: For a relatively well-aged dram, the colour is unusually pale and the alcohol is unusually high! However, one sniff and one sip, and you know the cask has worked wonders. It’s a fascinating excursion to Islay that’s unlike most other drams from this neck of the woods - more peaty than smoky; more salty than malty; and with some oaky dryness. A must for fans of this distillery.

UK Tasting Panel: The nose gave us fruit salad chews, sherbet lemons, blackberries, lime and oysters, but mainly it was smoke, melting tar, brine, Germolene, coal-tar soap, seaweed, cigar ash, rubber tyres and exhaust fumes (like a Calmac ferry). The palate delivered loads of ash, soot and sweet smoke – chilli-roasted nuts and a charcoal barbeque with smoked mackerel and charred prawns. The reduced nose offered first aid boxes, canvas, burnt mackerel skin and something earthy (terracotta plant pots, grow-bags). The taste was sweeter – peanut M&Ms and sugar-coated fennel seeds – a fine sweet-salty balance with lots of heat, from the biggest distillery on Islay.

Colour:    Moonlight chardonnay