Too Young? Caol Ila Unpeated 8 Year Old

Age restrictions either plague or prop up our society. The age you can legally drive, vote, drink, smoke, have sex, get married or buy fireworks is always hotly debated and I'd argue they are debated with good reason. To define a cut-off point where one is prohibited or enabled is always difficult. Everything from the average maturity through to the social and personal development of the age group has to be taken into account before they can be enabled to legally do something that in many respects has potential to harm. Personal opinion aside; it is easy to see why six year olds aren't allowed to purchase rockets and matches, it makes sense, it would be dangerous to anyone within twenty feet of the child (and also the pyromaniac of a child). Where it becomes difficult is when you decide at what point someone can legally drink and legally drive, which should come first, the intoxicant or the tonne of speeding metal? Or when people should be allowed to vote? Teenagers can be more politically engaged than many adults but then at what age are they deemed (as a whole) to be able to rationally decide who rule the country, thirteen, eighteen, thirty? We pin the moral heart of our country on age restrictions - in the eighties Die Hard was rated 18 whilst later on Saving Private Ryan a 15. Attitudes change, maybe there should there be flexibility, but flexibility is damned difficult to enforce. Common sense is a cop-out for illogical rationale and complete liberalisation allows for self-regulation which can sometimes be taken too far. So age restrictions exist for a reason but they will never appease everyone. A nice inconclusive conclusion there.

When applied to whisky it is equally inconclusive. Every whisky drinker can argue over whether a whisky is young or old enough. To be fair its part of the fun of the drink. I'm a huge advocate of the school of thought that young whiskies can be incredible and offer value for money that older whiskies can't. However for as many awful aged whiskies I try, there are as many young. Of course you can't generalise, each whisky is individual. Despite this, I was sadly disappointed when I recently tried the Caol Ila Unpeated 8 Year Old.

Caol Ila Unpeated 8 Year Old
64.2% - Bottled 2008
Nose: An estery cocktail of diced pears in apple juice spiced with vanilla and cardamon.
Palate: Vanilla and mounds of wood spice with espresso notes to the back of the mouth.
Finish: Dry oak and hints of wormwood, short.
Overall: Very woody with not enough going on to intrigue. For me this is excessively strong at 64.2%, I feel the alcohol is there to disguise an unflattering youth. I loved the 12 year old release of 2011 and was disappointed that this release didn't compare. However whisky would be boring if they were all great, so come back tomorrow for an all time classic!

One To Calm The Nerves... Caol Ila 18 Year Old

There was a panic in my girlfriend's eyes like I had never seen before, I could understand her manic frustration perfectly. We had been pounding the cold dark streets of the Isle of the Dogs on a desperate mission to find a most important temporal artefact. As we muscled our way into every shop we passed, we tore down the aisles not hesitating to put back the items we had thrown off the shelves in our frantic search. As each shop became a venue of disappointment, as the shadows grew longer and as the wind became more piercing, we began to take on the hunched dribbling shapes of incensed maniacs. Our search was becoming a forlorn hope, a quest without its Holy Grail, a maze without an exit. Then, without warning, a beam of light struck us, and as we shielded our eyes from its brilliance we could just make out a name... Tesco. Inside this humble bazaar we would find our goal amongst its trinkets and delectables. Here we found our salvation. Here we found the last available Advent Calenders on the Isle of the Dogs on the third of December. Three days into the month and every calender this side of Poplar had sold out. We were left with a Mars calender for myself and a Pixar Cars 2 calender for Ellen (she's never seen the film). We could return home clinging to our wares exhausted, happy - adventurous.

After all that stress it was time for a whisky and what better whisky to settle back and crack three windows of Mars chocolate with than a Caol Ila 18 year old?

Caol Ila 18 Year Old
43% - Distillery Bottling
Nose: Gusty Highland sea shore with smoking ship's beams cut with kiwi and passion fruit and a splash of cream. Finished with a wallop of peat.
Palate: Sizeable peat influence with a light but sea salty body powdered with white pepper.
Finish: Peat and pepper with parma violets and some herbal action, good length.
Overall: A well made peated whisky, if a little uninspiring. Tasty but not eye-opening.

Change Is In The Air: The Last Vatted Malt

Drink fuelled fun with friends at Uni...
one of the hardest things to let go of!

All good things come to an end, or so they say. Maybe it's because if we have too much of a good thing it loses its edge and fades into the dismal grey background of the dreaded norm. Or maybe they seem better in the utopia of nostalgia. Either way, what has gone before, or that which is no more, has a habit of seeming greater in hindsight than maybe it was in reality. I am a big advocate of change. If it ain't broke, break it and change it. The world would be a hideously boring and flaccid place otherwise.

Language changes too, old words leave and new words join our vocabulary each year. Who uses 'fallociloquence' (a deceitful speech) these days except in reference to the mutterings of News International executives before Parliamentary Committees; or 'schismarch' (a founder of a schism)? Language changes - and this brings me on to vatted/blended malt whisky. As of the 23rd November 2011, whisky that is a blend of two or more single malt whiskies can no longer be called 'vatted whisky' and must be called 'blended malt whisky'. The Scotch Malt Whisky Association argue that 'vatted' is too archaic a word to be understood by the public. Others argue that 'blended malt' and 'blended grain' sound too similar to 'blended scotch whisky'. I have to say in this instance I agree with SWA's decision, if not for the same reasons. I think there should be a catch-all term for blended malt/vatted malt/pure malt, and I think it does the public a disservice to imply that the difference between blended malt/blended grain/blended is too confusing to be understood, as suggesting the word 'vatted' is beyond them also. What I will say is that I spend as much time explaining what a single malt is as I do explaining blends and blended malt. Things change and 'blended malt' will one day be a term as part and parcel of whisky as 'vatted malt' was. Still, it's an excuse for those rebels at Compass Box to release another excellent bottling!

The Last Vatted Malt
53.7% - Bottled by Compass Box
Nose: Smoke with seabreeze and fishing port scents of menthol, iodine and, with time, toffee.
Palate: Soft smoke giving way to golden syrup and medicinal quality.
Finish: Peppery with sweet phenolic smoke and a hint of stewed strawberries, a little short perhaps.
Overall: A great marriage of peat and sherry cask. Those gutsy Caol Ila flavours rampage about followed by the stroke of sherry. Farewell vatted malt whisky.

Diageo Special Releases - Caol Ila Unpeated 1990

This is the first of the Diageo special releases that swept me off my feet this year. I tried my first Rosebank that I rated highly, my first Port Dundas that opened up the gates of grain whisky and anyone who read yesterday's review would have seen my opinion on the unimpressive Knockando. However, it was the Caol Ila that was the first that truly impressed me this year. For a while now I have seen the range of unpeated Caol Ilas, however having never tried them I had no opinion on them. Recently I tried the incredible Ardbeg Blasda, a lightly peated Ardbeg that was a beautiful demonstration of the complexity behind the smoky veil of peat so I was very excited to try a Caol Ila that was entirely unpeated...

Caol Ila 1999
64% - 12 Years Old - Unpeated
Nose: So distinctly Islay without being peated. Chlorine without phenol, citrus fruits notably lime. Also with green apple extract and green grapes with a hint of nectarine.
Palate: Fresh green fruits with vanilla essence, creamy and mouth-wateringly drinkable.
Finish: Creamy with chocolate notes, becomes soft and elegant with water.
Overall: Despite no peating, this 'Highland' style malt is clearly Islay born. Drinkable with layers of earthy Islay flavour. A champion of this year's Special Releases.