Caol Ila 35-year-old Director's Special, The Single Malts of Scotland / 50.9%/ 0.7l

The Single Malts of Scotland is a whisky range from the Elixir Distillers portfolio. The company is owned by brothers Sukhinder and Raj Singh, whose lifelong passion is whisky.

Their online store, The Whisky Exchange, has been operating since 1999 and now offers almost 8,000 spirits. The Single Malts of Scotland debuted in 2005 and features whiskies bottled at natural colour, cask strength and without chill filtration, usually in single cask. Director's Special is the crème de la crème of the series, a collection of rarities that tempt connoisseurs and collectors. The Caol Ila presented here, distilled in the mid-1980s, spent 35 years in an oak cask, and was bottled in 2020 at cask strength (50.9% abv) in an edition of 144 bottles.

Nose: elegant and complex, wet sand and shells, seaweed, damp wool, orange peel, apples, licorice, herbal liqueur, notes of leather and propolis.

Palate: slightly smoky, salty, green olives, salted nuts and almonds, lemon peel, grapefruit, mixed dried herbs, sesame and a bit of oak.

Finish: long, ocean breath, salty breeze, seaweed, lemon peel, smoked oysters, peat smoke and ash.