Whisky : Caol Ila 10 Year SMWS 53.367 “A Green Sea Tapestry”

Country/Region : Scotland/Islay

ABV : 60.3%

Cask : Refill Hogshead

Age : 10 Year (Distilled Sept. 2010)

Nose : Maritime, smokey, and woody. On the beach, the dried wood of a wrecked schooner, salty waves washing in, dried seaweed, tide pools, and grilled shellfish. Notes of briny pickled foods— smoked umeshu the wife called it. Herbal medicinal notes of camphor and menthol before vanilla and salt at the end called to mine homemade vanilla ice cream.

Palate : Medium-bodied and viscous with notes of smoke, wood, and vanilla.  Driftwood and ocean water led to metallic notes of rust and burnt phosphorous or match heads.  Sweet salty notes left the impression of salted sunflower seeds, grilled pears, and smoked sea salt caramels.  A soft creaminess developed at the end, even more so with a few drops of water, with a sweet note of vanilla ice cream.

Finish : Lingering salt and burnt matches.

Score : 6

Mental Image : Wrecked Match Smuggler

Notes : SMWS released this Caol Ila to celebrate Islay Festival 2021, the non-trademark version of Fiès Ìle. This Caol Ila had a classic distillery profile with crisp, clean maritime, wood, and smoke notes. The dram was sweeter on the palate than the nose led me to expect, but there was still plenty of salty goodness. I wish some of those medicinal herbs came through more, but I loved the impression of burnt match heads. It gave me the perfect opportunity to tell our local tasting group about Flossy Jaw— one of the hazards of match production in the nineteenth century and a big reason for the development of workplace protections.

The most striking aspect of this Caol Ila was the memory of homemade ice cream. When I was quite young, I remember our neighbors making ice cream out on their patio. They used one of those old hand-cranked ice cream machines that used packed ice and salt to get the ice cream mix to freeze. I never really cared for the ice cream. As a kid, I could not appreciate the science behind it; I did not see why these people did not just go down the street to the local ice cream place. Somehow I always felt like the ice cream tasted salty, which could very well have been user error on my part.

Overall, this was a fascinating balance of sweet and salty with tons of classic maritime notes. There was nothing weird or unusual about this; it was just about what you want from a Caol Ila.