Review by: dustbunna

Sometime toward the end of the ’90s, Caol Ila (Diageo’s peat workhorse and the largest distillery by far on Islay) began distilling some special runs of unpeated barley once a year, in what they call the “Highland style.” One-off bottlings using this unpeated distillate began popping up in the Diageo Special Releases in the early 2010s, slowly and non-linearly gaining age– and a following– over time. This 17yr was part of the 2015 Special Releases, and at the time was the oldest release– later eclipsed by 2017’s 18yr. This bottling was matured entirely in refill ex-bourbon American oak casks, then bottled at cask strength without chill-filtration or color added (a hallmark of the SRs, and all but unknown among standard Diageo releases.)

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Distillery: Caol Ila.

Bottler: Distillery bottling.

Region: Islay.

ABV: 55.9%. Cask strength.

Age: 17 years. Bottled in 2015.

Cask type: Refill ex-bourbon American oak.

Price: $113 USD.

Natural Color. Non-chill-filtered.

Bottle open across approx. 9 months, notes taken leisurely across that period. Bold notes taken beneath the shoulder, regular-formatted notes taken further into the bottle past the halfway point, italicized notes taken towards the heel.

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Nose: very quiet at first ~ lots of time to coax it out, but eventually there’s Speculoos cookies and spices, candied lemon with salt, soft floral notes in the background, peaches, tangerines, milk chocolate, root beer floats, cut grass, malted chocolate shake, hints of orange creamsicles and pool chemicals, little bit of tropical fruit.

Palate: WHAM. Oily and thick with a core of malt, iron and ozone on arrival, develops more peach and cinnamon, strong wood spice, minerals, pastry dough, more tangerines, roasted nuts, slightly bitter undertones and a hint of black pepper.

Finish: long, with a fair bit of heat ~ more minerals, some medicinal smoke, wintergreen, more ozone, vanilla gelato, develops waves of crème de menthe, pipe smoke and wet rocks (this IS unpeated, right!?)

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Conclusion: This is a titanic, austere, very complex thing. Air, water, and time all do wonders for it, and I eventually managed to dial it in using a regular Glencairn with a few drops of water and 15-20 minutes of rest. But wow, what a journey this goes on once you get it right: tons of malt and pastry, strong mineral presence all the way through, with little secondary notes of spice, wood, flowers, and *yes*, smoke, supporting it. Of all the unpeated Caol Ila releases, this 17yr seems to be the one that has reviewers and tasters constantly scratching their heads trying to figure out how the smoke snuck its way in there, and it certainly gives me some afterthoughts/reminiscences of their peated distillate (especially in the finish, which is excellent with those waves of flavor.) 

I love all the nuances happening here and find drinking it to be very engaging, but I also feel it’s somewhat finicky; this whisky is at once brilliant and extremely moody. Even after months of time open if my palate is just a wee bit off, or I pick the wrong glass, or dilute to the wrong ABV, or let it rest too little or too much, it just closes right up and refuses to budge. What it reveals when it chooses to, however, is just stellar, and if that were easier to access we would be in A-grade territory for sure.

Though their unpeated runs get called “Highland style”, I struggle to think of any Highland quite like this Caol Ila– to my taste, it’s unique. I have heard that 2017’s 18yr was an even stronger showing than this one, and I can only imagine what this profile might unlock as it passes the 20-year mark. It’s been a while since the last release in 2018, but I hope Caol Ila still has some of this style aging somewhere in that three-story warehouse on site.

Final Score: 88.

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Scoring Legend:

• 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
• 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
• 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
• 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
• 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
• 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
• 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
• 50-59: Save it for mixing.
• 0-49: Blech.