The Manager’s Dram series of whiskies were bottled exclusively for employees of what is now known as Diageo. These whiskies were selected by the respective distillery managers within Diageo malt distilling and bottled at natural cask strength.

This Caol Ila is hands-down the most sought-after, and is becoming more and more difficult to find.

Matured in sherry casks, this iconic malt was bottled in 1990 at 63%.

Colour: dark amber. Nose (neat): sure it’s powerful but it’s also rather ‘nosable’, even at such high strength. First it’s very meaty, mainly on smoked ham, then the peat starts to come through, together with quite some coal smoke and flints… And then we have the sherry, with first notes of peonies, blackcurrants and green pepper (almost like a young Bordeaux – premier cru of course) and then the more usual coffee, toffee, fruitcake, chocolate, mint leaves, pepper… The balance is really fantastic, absolutely fantastic. Superbly compact, with strictly no offbeat notes and not the slightest flaw. We’re approaching perfection here, but let’s see what happens with water: ok, it doesn’t really get nicer – which would have been nearly impossible – but water brings out notes of fresh almonds, old books, camphor… Again, wonderful. Mouth (neat): immensely powerful but drinkable, starting on 100% peat plus 100% sherry. Lots of chocolate and quite some salt at the attack, hints of soy sauce, quite some liquorice, balsamic vinegar, pepper, prunes… Hugely concentrated and rich, I guess one could use this one as a sauce (why not with foie gras!) With water: more caramel and more liquorice, gentian eau-de-vie, roots, smoked tea.

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