Caol Ila 26 years old (D.1995, B.2021) Signatory Vintage /49.2%/0.7l

Caol Ila Distillery, built by Hector Henderson in 1846, is now owned by Diageo and following modernisation completed in 2011, is the largest distillery on Islay with a production capacity of 6.5 million litres of distillate per year.

The brand’s global sales are at 600,000 bottles per year, far behind the regional leader, Laphroaig (around 4 million bottles). Independent distributors have always been keen to include Caol Ila in their offerings, and the whisky presented here, distilled on 26 January 1995, spent 26 years in a 708 hogshead cask before being bottled at cask strength (49.2% abv) by Signatory Vintage on 30 August 2021, exclusively for Parisian La Maison du Whisky. The edition consisted of 163 bottles.

Nose : pleasantly smoky, seaweed salad, pineapples, passion fruit, honeydew melon, grilled bacon, vanilla, caramel, salted nuts and delicate herbal and oak notes.

Palate: rich, vanilla, milk chocolate, salted caramel, acacia honey, lemon peel, baked apples, seaweed salad, licorice, lemon pepper and a hint of peat smoke in the background.

Finish : long, with notes of sea breeze, peat smoke and ash, chocolate, pepper, cloves, herbal mix and oak.