Key Facts About This Single Malt
Bottler: Swell De Spirits
Founder: Michael Barbaria
Range: Wonders Of The World #10
Distillery: Caol Ila
Region: Islay, Scotch
Distilled: 2010
Bottled: April 2022
Spirit: Single malt
Cask Type: Jamaican Rum Cask Finish
Alcohol by Volume: Cask strength at 57%
Bottled: Natural colour and without chill filtration
Outturn: 360 bottles
Bottle Size: 500ml
Caol Ila 2010 Tasting Notes
Picture this: A smoky fireplace in a flint cottage where a doctor's leather first aid case opens to reveal wound cream, bandages, a bottle of Lapsang Souchong and a tube of liquorice dipped in sherbet.
Neat, without water
Nose: Sweet smoke from a coal fire with pine needles on top. There is a leather chair too close to the fireplace in the flint cottage. Faded rose petals and a leather Gladstone medicine bag next to it. Open to display wound cream, anaesthetics, bandages, plus a paper bag filled with rum and raisin fudge.
Palate: Full, creamy mouthfeel. A smoke-breathing dragon drinks Lapsang Souchong from a tinted metal teapot. In an operating room, cream for wounds, dressings covered with iodine and secured with a safety pin. There's lavender, Toblerone, nougat, rum-raisin fudge, chocolate-covered honeycomb. At the back, smooth, sweet smoke after the first hit.
Finish: Long and lingering. Puffs of smoke from a coal fire. Sweet peat, lavender, ginger, cardamom, star anise and even more smoke. Rum sweetness at the finale.
With a few drops of water
Nose with water: Maritime notes with pebbles on the beach. Canned peaches, peeled Seville oranges and a cardboard tube of liquorice dipped in sorbet. A leather pouch sits by a fire which struggles to burn wet wood and dried seaweed.
Palate: More sweetness, leather pants, lit meerschaum pipe drawing tobacco. Dark chocolate ginger cookies, anise twists, butter cookies with cinnamon, and chocolate covered Brazil nuts. Creamy tapioca with raspberry jam and more smoke.
Finish: Smoked chai tea bites, dark chocolate rum truffles and canned peaches.
