Tastes

Goodness gracious you gotta let this breathe! Even after breathing for a while it still requires a lot of digging under a big whiff of medicinal alcohol. There is mint oil, delicate toffee, cocoa powder, and browned butter. The palate is primarily hot and minty. The finish is very dry due to a large amount of wood tannin. Adding water softens and lengthens the wood notes. Despite the tannin and alcohol the texture is fairly juicy. Overall, the alcohol has too tight a grip on this whiskey and it has no intention of letting go.

An odd aroma of dark roasted nuts, rubber, vanilla, stewed fruits. It's like combining Macallan with factory by products. Dark fruits, dark malt, and a stark dry smoke finish that is the black sheep of the group. I much prefer the edition No.2.

One of my favorite things about Caol Ila is the combination of heather and smoke. A lot gets dished out on the aroma. Mmmm. Grilled peaches and plantains. A cool combination of earthy and tropical. The palate is phenolic with smoke and menthol mint being fairly prominent. Dry citrus towards the back with a big soot and smoke finish. Well done.

Initially an aroma of lemon wedges covered in soot. There's also some lovely honeydew and sage. Tart and acidic palate up front. There's more citrus on the palate but I'm wanting cream to go along with it like in Glen Grant. The finish is herbaceous, dusted with soot, but short lived.

A light aroma but still expressive. Milk chocolate, dark malt, and something sugary sweet. The palate is soft at first but the mid palate erupts with heat and spice. Sweet dark malt up front with sugary fruits at the core of the mid palate. Even the smoke near the end seems to originate from a sweet source. The finish just echoes what you experience from the mid palate on. This is a bit too much sweetness for me. This whisky seems less complex than it actually is because of it. Enjoyable, but like most rich sweets I could only have one.

A nose of malt vinegar, mead, pollen and highland peat. Thin oil textured palate. At its core is stewed fruit with shells of vanilla, beeswax, and inland peat. Start to finish this whisky has a bit of a sizzle sensation from the alcohol. The finish is warm and earthy. Fun to pick apart, but I don't know if I'd want to continue to revisit it with a standard sized bottle. I do like that Malt vinegar though.

Heather honey, gentle campfire smoke, sugar cookies, ripe peaches, overall a very charming aroma. Juicy orchard fruits on the palate, Lapsang tea with honey, dark chimney smoke finish. Spans the spectrum of sweet to savory very well. I gotta start drinking more Lowland malts.

A surprising amount of dry wood on the nose. Sweet caramel, dry roasted peanuts, and some serious heat. The palate is full of sweet corn, more caramel, rye grain and warm tannins on the finish. After adding some water the nose gets some mint oil and the rye spices are unleashed. The alcohol masks the identity but don't worry a little water reveals all.