Jose-Massu-Espinel
Caol Ila Fable Ghost Piper of Clanyard Bay
Single Malt — Islay, Scotland
Reviewed
December 29, 2021 (edited January 1, 2022)
There is a new independent bottler around, or at least is the first time i have heard of it, called Fable Whiskies. They have released a collection of eleven bottles, with labels made by Hugo Cuellar, a popular cartoon animator, who has given this bottles a very interesting theme: The Clanyard Ghost Piper.
In a very "Tim Burton" way, this collection, that starts with this Caol Ila 12yo bottled at cask strength (57.5%abv), this bottle tells the story about a very good scottish piper from Clanyard Bay, who entered a horror cave filled with bad fairies, that curse anyone who dares to enter their home. It seems that the piper was trapped in a labyrinth inside the cave, and nowadays you can only hear his bagpipes on scary nights.
On the nose, there is this newspaper on fire note, An inmidiately mixture of vanilla cake crust, grapefruit, peat. Recently baked brownies, hard mint candy, medicinal notes like povidine. Skin lotion. Its the most medicinal Caol Ila i have ever nosed. A peppery note with gooseberries appeared after 3 minutes. It has a creamy medicinal profile. After a first sip, it became like margarine. There is this bonfire aroma were chemicals have been burnt. More sips revealed a lemon meringue aroma.
On the palate, it is very good. Chocolate for a second. Gooseberries and a nice pepper. A second sip gave me a buttery chocolate note which is very nice. Salt caramel.
Aftertaste could be longer. Ashy, citric, salty finish. Very maritime, it tastes exactly as fresh seafood, very interesting, unexpected but a little bit odd. Not very long. Finish is nice.
Overall, i believe this is a very collectible bottle, having said that, buy two, so you can drink one. There were only 288 ever made, but it doesn't seem hard to find (yet). If you can, watch the animation by Hugo Cuellar of this bottle's story, the Ghost Piper of Clanyard Bay. A very good whisky, my score is 90 over 100.
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