Blair Athol Distillery, Thursday, April 25th 2024. Whisky #6 Nose: Wood-smoke, coal embers, cinnamon, honey-soaked apricot, peach nectar and ginger, all smelled against the aroma of low-tide on a pebble seashore. Palate: Smoke and buttery caramel fudge are the first flavours on the arrival, followed immediately by sea-salt. The sweet wine comes forward in the development but in no way derails the palate, instead adding a blanketing honeyed, fruity aspect that is very agreeable. The texture is both maritime-dry and slightly oily. Finish: Medium. Spicy toffee, iodine, brine and a touch of mint licorice in the aftertaste. Caol Ila Distiller’s Edition used to be issued as a 12 year-old age-statement batch product, however since 2022 it has been a regularly produced NAS (I'd guess it is now vatted from whiskies with an average age of around 12 years, but that the minimum age dips below 12). I don't know why this was done but it could be that it was one of the more popular of the annual Diageo Distiller’s Editions (and the only explicitly peated one), so they decided to market it as a core-range bottling, which demanded some elasticity in the vatting. The nose has very much the classic Caol Ila distillate character but with added warm, sweet fruitiness, which feels entirely appropriate. The palate is similarly sweetened and fruity. I can’t imagine this expression being turned down by anyone who enjoys sweet-wine finished peated whisky, and it’s even relatively well priced and not hard to find. “Good” : 84/100 (3.75 stars)