Caol Ila 17 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky from 1969 (30ml)

About This Dram

Cheaper By The Dram shares the cost of expensive whiskies between customers by splitting bottles into drams.

The 17-year-old single malt whisky in dram NO.22 was distilled by Caol Ila Distillery in 1969, and bottled by independent bottlers, Gordon and MacPhail, in 1986 as part of their Connoisseurs Choice range.

The current retail price of a 750ml bottle is £1,500. 

About This Single Malt Scotch Whisky

Distilled: Caol Ila Distillery

Region: Islay

Bottled By: Gordon & MacPhail 

Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky

Age: 17 Year Old

Vintage: 1969

Bottled: 1986

Dram Size: 30ml miniature

Alcohol by Volume: 40%

Series: Connoisseurs Choice

About Caol Ila Distillery

Located near Port Askaig on Islay’s eastern coast, Caol Ila was established by Hector Henderson in 1846. The name Caol Ila derives from the Gaelic for the Sound of Islay, the narrow strait between Islay and Jura which the distillery overlooks. In 1857, Henderson sold the distillery to the Glasgow blenders Bulloch Lade who improved the site building a substantial pier. Caol Ila was absorbed into Distillers Company Limited (later Diageo) in 1927, operating until 1972 when the old distillery was demolished and a new larger one was built, increasing the number of stills from two to six and turning Caol Ila into Islay’s largest whisky producer. In the 1970’s the Scotch whisky industry was dominated by blended whiskies, with Caol Ila’s output destined for an array of blends including Johnnie Walker and Black Bottle. A downturn in the whisky market in the 1980’s resulted in a surplus of Caol Ila’s existing peated malt, although the distillery switched to producing an unpeated ‘Highland style’ malt required for blends allowing it to remain open and operational. Despite Caol Ila now being bottled and sold as a single malt, 95 percent of the distillery’s output is still used for blending, and an unpeated expression is now issued as a special release. Caol Ila’s distillery character manages to combine a fresh pear note, grassiness, a hint of juniper with distinctive notes of the seashore, lobster shells and gentle smoke with maturation in refill casks.

About the Connoisseurs Choice Range

This 1969 distilled Caol Ila single malt was aged for 17 years then released by independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail as part of their Connoisseurs Choice range. First created by George Urquhart in 1968, Connoisseurs Choice aimed to showcase small batch examples of single malt in a market focused entirely on blended whiskies. The Connoisseurs Choice range pioneered a new category in the whisky market by selecting, maturing and bottling whisky from distilleries, many of which had never before been bottled as single malt, according to the belief every distillery has a unique personality to collect a range of rare and sought after single malts from some of Scotland’s long established distilleries. The distinctive brown label identifies this bottling as a Connoisseurs Choice release dating from the 1980’s. Distilled at the old Caol Ila distillery before it was demolished and rebuilt, this dram offers the drinker a taste of this cult Islay distillery’s history.