Recently tasted side-by-each, these two official distillery releases of the Port Askaig spirit each proved their worth, albeit it in slightly differing fashion...
Caol Ila 12 Year Old Single Malt Scotch, Hidden Malts Series – 43% alcohol by volume
Provenance: Isle of Islay
Colour: Pale, shimmering, lemon-lime gold.
Nose: Pungently medicinal from the first whiff. Pears, bananas, salad greens, olives and tar pitch in antiseptic saline solution.
Palate: Soft, fruit-laden overture before the peat and brine enter stage-right. Just enough clean, spicy oak and spirit to keep the seesaw tipping. Salt licks and wood ashes lying atop sand kick in at the close. Good length.
Assessment: Some judicious vatting going on here.
Summary: The brawn of Caol Ila presented in an all too drinkable form.
Caol Ila 18 Year Old Single Malt Scotch, Hidden Malts Series – 43% alcohol by volume
Provenance: Isle of Islay
Colour: Gold with buttercup yellow highlights.
Nose: Less flamboyantly medicinal. Fruit salad. Beach pebbles at high tide. Vanilla. White chocolate. Almonds. Winter thyme.
Palate: Surging bite-sized malt sweetness. Durum semolina. Uplifted fruit married to polished oak. Tightly integrated and very focused at mid palate. Hints of hot pepper drift into the drying dénouement as a distinct sensation of thyme leaves settles on the tongue.
Assessment: Salivating. Those unique flashes of flavour are, at times, quite remarkable.
Summary: The dagger stabs more deftly.
These UDV/Diageo editions display a greater fruit-malt component than is often found in independently bottled versions of Caol Ila, the latter of which sometimes emphasize the dry, crisp oak and bracing sea aspects of the whisky over the underlying sweetness of the spirit.
The 12 Year Old certainly seems the more versatile of the pair, with a wider potential appeal.
However, there is something about that 18 Year Old that calls out.