Tasting notes Ruben Luyten - WhiskyNotes: Score 87/100

Nose: very ashy. An extinguished barbecue, old leathery notes and some walnut husks. Smoked fish. Hints of lemons in the background. Engine oils, hessian and old, wet ropes. All very nice and coastal, but not the sherry character of the previous editions. Maybe a different type of sherry, or simply the larger volume of the cask.

Mouth: oily and smoky. The sherry cask brought some sweetness, but it’s more of a toffee / caramel type and less fruity than we’d hoped. Bright lemons, plenty of cold ashes and soot, brine and iodine. The sherry is restrained but blends in nicely with the Islay character.

Finish: long, with pepper, smoked kippers, lemons and hessian.

It’s fat, ashy, coastal… simply really good. It just doesn’t deliver the same kind / amount of sherry character as the previous bottlings. Not that Caol Ila requires heavy sherry anyway.