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Caol Ila 9 Year Old 2006 for MMM

High Five!

0 686

@markjedi1Review by @markjedi1

31st Oct 2016

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MMM - short for Mark & Manny's Malts - launched their fourth and final bottling in the Animal Series. It was dubbed The Elephant because this Caol Ila truly is a mighty animal with its cask strength of 59,8% AB. Imanuel and I are quite happy with the discovery (and acquisition!) of this cask. You should have seen our faces when we first tried it. Without a word we looked at each other and immediately had a big smile on our faces. 'Sold!' we shouted in unison, followed by a huge guffaw and a high five.

Typical Caol Ila nose, just the way I like it. Maritime elements on the one hand (think seaweeds, stockfish, rocky coast), white fruit on the other (mostly apples and lemon). A hint of sweet vanilla and a little bit of pepper from the bourbon cask. Nice smokiness with ashes and even a bit medicinal. Think bandages. Lastly, some grassy notes. I love it!

It is very clean and wonderfully oily. Immediately it fills the mouth with salted lime juice (What? Yup!), a grand smokiness, warm pepper and a lovely sweet element. Ginger, liquorices, vanilla - it all fits hand in glove. Water it totally unnecessary (I even recommend not to dilute it).

Lovely long finish in which the smokiness even increases. At the death, salt and sweetness go head to head again, but it is the smoke that lingers the longest.

Yes, this is what you would call textbook Caol Ila, but very powerful. This is the 70th Cao Ila that I try. What a blast. We are very proud of this one. High five!

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6 comments

@Alexsweden
Alexsweden commented

Sounds like a good one from a kind of underrated distillery

7 years ago 0

@Ol_Jas
Ol_Jas commented

Under-EXPOSED to the more casual drinking market? Yeah, I can see that.

Under-RATED? No, I don't think so. Most folks who care seem to recognize Caol Ila as a quality producer.

7 years ago 0

@Nozinan
Nozinan commented

If only this bottling were available in Canada...

7 years ago 0

@markjedi1
markjedi1 commented

I sometimes say - this may be a bit bold - that Coal Ila is the new Port Ellen. Sorry, but this bottling will indeed never make it to Canada. I have only released 50 of 'm and you can only order them from my website. But because of the limited numbers, they are gone in under an hour... :-)

7 years ago 0

@Ol_Jas
Ol_Jas commented

Nozinan: Nothing to worry about there. Young high-octane IB Caol Ilas are no rare thing. (Before anyone reads my next point, note that I said "young"!)

Markjedi1: I think you're on pretty solid ground there. I've even heard it said that Caol Ila is also the OLD Port Ellen! Really, the volume that was coming out of Caol Ila before its huge expansion was in the same league as Port Ellen, so Caol Ilas from that period are really just as rare and of a similar character (reputedly—I couldn't say). It's just the obvious differences in histories since that point that make everyone THINK Port Ellens are ultra-rare while old Caol Ilas are commonplace.

7 years ago 0

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