Here’s another review from the pre-Whiskyfest, hotel room bottle share: the Caol Ila 17yo Unpeated special release. This style of whisky is distilled by them a couple weeks out of every year to show off their malt’s flavor without using peat. I had a bottle of the 15yo Unpeated a few years ago and I wasn’t really a big fan, so I wasn’t expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised this time, though. This is bottled at or near cask strength at 55.9%. It’s yellow gold and forms quick, long legs in the tasting glass. I don’t believe there’s color added nor is it chill filtered, but I don’t have the bottle in front of me to verify that. On the nose, plenty of lemon zest and oak, with some salty and grassy notes mingling throughout. There’s some subtle citrus notes of orange playing in the background as well. It smells light and airy provided you don’t get too far down in the glass and pick up the heat from the ABV. The palate brings out spicier notes of ginger, pepper and oak, but also some lighter notes like olives. The mouthfeel is oily and somewhat thick. It leaves the peppery notes clinging to the tongue and turns the finish dry really quickly. Between that and the high ABV it feels exceedingly hot and even drier than it actually is and for that I have to deduct some points. This one could probably use some water to tame it, but that’s not my style. Perhaps Caol Ila should’ve blended this one down to 48% and I could’ve enjoyed it more, too. Thanks to @Telex for letting me bring a pour of this home so I could evaluate it on its own, instead of having to rate it up against the big boy bottles we split in the hotel. It didn’t stand much of a chance there, but on its own I kind of enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. I still think Caol Ila’s peated lines are where it’s at, but this one wasn’t half bad. 3.75 stars, rounded down to 3.5 because these bottles are rather pricy. Cheers.