Review by: ZoidbergOnTheRocks
La Maison du Whisky selected six single casks of Caol Ila from Signatory Vintage for their “chess investigation series“. I don’t honestly understand the theme, but I can absolutely get behind six single cask, young Caol Ila. Some of these are cask strength, others are reduced to 46%, in a variety of casks and/or finishes. They’re all distilled one year apart and bottled in 2020, so a fun range of ages.
I got these on a lark when I saw them all at one auction. LMDW has a good rep for store picks, Signatory Vintage is one of my favorite IBs, and I dig young IB Caol Ila. I suspected they’d all be a reasonable price, too, and they were. So why not? Oh, and I also figured I’d be able to get some buddies to split ’em with me!
This is the second group of three I’m tasting. I’ll pour some from part one as necessary to get a total order.
Tasted on 6/13/2022, neat in a Glencairn, water added later as appropriate.
Caol Ila (2010) Signatory Vintage ‘The Suspects’ for La Maison Du Whisky
Kind of an interesting idea here, using ex-Ballechin casks for this one and the next one. I’ve had a couple Ballechin, but I couldn’t say I could pick out the character cold that’s for sure.
Distillery: Caol Ila
Bottler: Signatory Vintage (SV)
Region: Scotland, Islay
ABV: 57.0%, cask strength
Age: 9 years old. Distilled in 2010. Bottled in 2020.
Cask type: Ex-Ballechin Sauternes Wine Cask Finish
Natural color. Non-chill-filtered. One of 310 bottles, from a single cask #61112.
Nose: lemon rind, raisins, apricot jam. Peat, coal smoke. Seaspray, hot sand. Camphor. Dry grass. With Water: more peat, earthier. Somewhat floral. Seashells. Ginger.
Taste: wood smoke. Earthy peat. Seawater. Lemon peel. Golden raisins. A bit hot. Nice oily mouthfeel. Sweet, caramel. With Water: heat is gone. Chocolate. Honey. Very nice.
Finish: lots of wood smoke & peat. Seawater. Tart lemon. Leather. Medium length on smoke, salt, a bit of fruit. With Water: more camphor. Golden raisins, jam.
Summary: This is a real treat, and easily the best of the series. Decent complexity, nicely balanced throughout, very nice and oily mouthfeel, I dig it. Rather maritime too. Some nice sweetness that doesn’t overwhelm. Improves with a bit of water for sure, gets a bit medicinal even. Good finish, not an off-note to be found.
Would I buy a bottle? yes. Believe it or not, this was second-cheapest of the series at 70gbp. A bargain for sure.
Final Score: 87.
Caol Ila (2011) Signatory Vintage ‘The Accomplice’ for La Maison Du Whisky
Distillery: Caol Ila
Bottler: Signatory Vintage (SV)
Region: Scotland, Islay
ABV: 46.0%
Age: 9 years old. Distilled in 2011. Bottled in 2020.
Cask type: Ex-Ballechin Burgundy Wine Cask Finish
Natural color. Non-chill-filtered. One of 310 bottles, from a single cask #1.
Nose: stewed apples, dates, raisins. Mild smoke. A touch of peat. Toffee. Carbide. Quite sweet overall. With Water: leather, perhaps some tobacco.
Taste: mild smoke. Rather sweet. Thin. Lemon, apples, raisins. Custard. With Water: same.
Finish: stewed apples. Black pepper. Mild smoke. Medium length mostly on pepper and smoke. A bitter tinge as it lingers. With Water: a touch more smoke perhaps. Spice continues to dominate the finish, with mushy fruit.
Summary: Well, this is a decent dram that’s not too exciting. Sweeter than I expected, fairly simple with some stewed/mushy fruits wrapped in peat and smoke. It’s quite different from the nose through to the finish, with more fruit on the nose and lots of spice later. I keep tasting it again looking for something interesting, but I’m not finding it.
Would I buy a bottle? no. Even though this one was the cheapest of the series at 45gbp, I’d pass honestly. Go buy any standard Islay entry-level bottle instead.
Final Score: 77.
Caol Ila (2012) Signatory Vintage ‘The Disappearance’ for La Maison Du Whisky
Distillery: Caol Ila
Bottler: Signatory Vintage (SV)
Region: Scotland, Islay
ABV: 46.0%
Age: 8 years old. Distilled in 2012. Bottled in 2020.
Cask type: First fill sherry butt finish
Natural color. Non-chill-filtered. One of 305 bottles.
Nose: soft. Dried fruit, sherry. Chocolate. Oak. Mild smoke. Seashells. Toffee. With Water: opened up a bit w/ even more rich fruits and toffee, less smoke. With time, spent matches and melon.
Taste: caramel. Chocolate. Mild ginger spice. Thin. Raisins. Oaky. With Water: thinner. Less spice. Meh.
Finish: mild peat. Coal smoke, ash. Oaky. Chocolate. Black pepper. Short. With Water: fruit is replaced with a mild peppery warmth before it all fades.
Summary: This one is very shy on the nose, and soft throughout. Sherry seems to cover the Caol Ila here and I wouldn’t even guess this is an Islay, honestly. Lots of dried fruits, chocolate, and oak with some smoke as a backdrop. Some maritime influence. The finish is underwhelming, with more smoke than the rest but it all fades quickly into some lingering spice then it’s gone. It’s almost a palate cleanser actually.
Would I buy a bottle? nope. This one tied for second-most expensive of the series at 130gbp. Ouch. “What are we doing now? Losing big.”
Final Score: 77.
Comparison
Order: Suspects > Albi > Victim > Accomplice > Disappearance > Suspicion
(That’s 1 > 2 > 3 here in part 2.)
The Suspects is easily the winner, and is exactly what I was hoping to find here. There’s a big gap to the other two.
The Accomplice I’ll take over the Disappearance as it’s a little more balanced, and more in-character. The Disappearance isn’t bad on the nose, but it’s just so underwhelming on the palate.
Over the whole series
Scores are 82, 83, 75, 87, 77, 77. An average of 80.2. Let’s face it, this is not what I expected from the combination of Signatory Vintage and LMDW. I feel like I found two good bottles here, and four “meh”. As I said in Part 1, I was hoping to find some hidden brilliance here, and the closest I came was the sauternes cask bottle. I was hoping for much better, and I feel like I need to apologize to my buddies who went in on splitting them.
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.
Malt Runners 