Colour: light gold. Nose: extremely maritime at first nosing. Lots of seaweed, iodine, oysters… A walk on the beach, really. Very clean and pure and astoundingly fresh. If some peated whiskies are sort of farmy (cow stable, hay and all that), this Coal Ila is just the opposite. Hints of bitter almonds… Superbly elegant, that’s for sure... There are some whiffs of deep forest after the rain, moss, fern developing after a few minutes. Really fantastic! Goes on with dill, freshly crushed mint leaves, apple skin… Sharp like a blade, I really love it. Mouth: oh! This one is like no other whisky I ever had before. First, it’s very bold, which is amazing considering both its ABV and its age in glass. Second, peat, cooked apple, and pepper rush into your mouth at the very same time, with a lot of fructose and bitter almonds following very closely. It then gets very bitter indeed (grape seeds), and I don’t quite know whether I like that or not. I feel like if I just drank some turpentine! What’s sure is that it’s like no other whisky, but I must admit it’s one of the first times I taste an ‘Old’, pre-refurbishment Caol Ila, so… Hints of white rum and tequila – even mescal. The finish is long but, again, quite bitter, with also some dusty notes (flour, cocoa powder). It even sort of sparkles on the tongue! In short, the nose is totally stupendous, and perhaps the mouth is great, but I just lack reference regarding the latter. Maybe it’s an acquired taste? Okay, let’s give it a conservative rating: 90 points.

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