Caol Ila intermittently produces unpeated whisky in additional to its standard peated malt. Among the 2025 Special Releases from Diageo was a young unpeated Caol Ila, the first cask strength release of the spirit in almost a decade.  While distilled from unpeated barley, they have still retained hints of phenols and smoke, artifacts from the equipment or the casks used for maturation— or maybe its just the aura of the distillery inescapably imprinting itself.

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Whisky: Caol Ila 15 Year “Unpeated Style” 2016 Special Release

Country/Region: Scotland/Islay

ABV: 61.5%

Cask: Refill American Oak, European Oak Butts

Age: 15 Years (Bottled 2016)

Notes: Clean and coastal, this was all salted margarita rims and citrusy lemons. Hessian and twine lingered further in with beechwood to give the impression of a lagoon-facing beach shack with dry palm fronds and pandanus leaves. More fruits emerged with time, though a few drops of water helped bring them on quicker with white pineapple, soursop, and hints of pandan— coconut belatedly joined but remained a bit shy. Medium-bodied on the palate, the whisky was waxy with a peppery maritime brine leading waxy citrus skins to tide pools of limestone and coral— the pepperiness was a bit mineralic. More grassy sugars and pandan arrived near the end, though water brought them out faster and dimmed some of the peppery and spirited qualities of the malt. The finish was medium to long with pepper, driftwood, and maritime brine.

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Score: 6 (77)

Mental Image: Beachcomber Pepper Mill

Conclusion: Remove the hefty peat from Caol Ila: strip away the smoke and medicinal herbs and what is left?  Plenty of citrus and sea, though getting there required surviving a rather peppery and stormy spirit. I loved the rawness of this malt, but a few drops of water seemed mandatory to settle it— though even then the finish remained peppery. It had a lot in common with the “unpeated style’ release from the 2015 Special Release cohort, especially that margarita rim quality, but it lacked some of the finesse that the more mature 17 Year carried.