Following in the footsteps of the outstanding Caol Ila 2012 found in our 2021 Creation Catalogue French Connections, this version showcases the wonderful complexity afforded by the combination of peated malted barley and sherry wine.
Further highlighting this complicity, the flavour and aroma palette energetically reveals stunning fruity, chocolaty, malty, salty, smoky, peaty, spicy and floral sequences.
Tasting Notes
Colour: Orangey copper
Nose: Full-bodied, unctuous. On the first nose, notes of apricot, cherries in brandy, white peach and raisin drive aromas of malted barley, iodine, smoke and dried peat into the background. Soon, however, more balance arrives. Allowed to breathe, pepper, salted butter caramel, chocolate, orange and heady florals (hyacinth, peony) bring the aroma palette lots of sophistication.
Palate: Clear, precise. On the attack, now-rooty peat (gentian), ash and camphor appear alongside milk chocolate, heather honey, quince jelly and apricot coulis. The chocolate gradually becomes dark (100% cocoa). The mid-palate is equipped with a superb mouth-watering bitterness, allowing glimpses of a lemony and fruity (pear) spirit. At the end of the palate, sublime flavours of honeysuckle and gillyflower spread through the air.
Finish: Long, very serene. The slightly meaty start of the finish (bacon, leather) is above all covered in a fine layer of ash. Chimney hearth is not far away. A certain minerality brings to mind the warmth of a firebrick. On the retro-nasal olfaction, exotic fruits (mango, guava) refresh the resinous (pine, Vosges cough sweets), earthy and balsamic (sherry vinegar) finish. The empty glass is camphoric, spicy (star anise), liquorice and herbaceous (peated malted barley).