Color: Well, I think this as pale as an 11 year old whisky can get... Pale lemon chiffon, young and unoaked white wine color with small teardrops around the glass turning into hesitant slow moving legs.
Nose: Walking into the still room of a distillery, more likely of an Islay distillery... Peaty new make, brisk early breeze at a morning walk on the beach and brine. Cotton rags soaked in sea water and gasoline, canned stone fruits and wet sand. Text book Caol Ila nose... After adding a few drops of water: Grilled banana peppers, grilled pineapple rings and interiors of a brand new car.
Palate: Quite hot on this abv. Strong coastal peat, char pieces and sea salt. Lemon zest and salted yellow grapefruit wedges. No need to delay adding water... Love it, it's definitely easier now: Burnt rubber, bell peppers and burnt lemon halves. Ground red pepper and ground ginger.
Finish: Long with peppercorns, rock salt and dry soot.
Overall: I might be suffering from some Caol Ila fatigue lately to be honest... In last couple months I ended up tasting quite a few Caol Ila bottlings aged between 10 and 14 years from different independent bottlers as well as some blended malts using young Caol Ila as their main ingredient. Although they were all pretty good in their own way I am afraid you eventually come to a point where it gets extremely hard to pick-up the nuances and qualities... In the end when I put my scores together it summed up to 86 points which proves that I liked the whisky a lot actually. Like I said I am just having a minor Caol Ila fatigue. I'll get over it eventually... It is again a very distillate forward whisky with minimal cask influence and a very good price tag. Definitely recommended for all the Caol Ila fans out there... Thanks again to Kate for sending me this sample all the way from Campbeltown to Los Angeles.
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