Caol ila 12 Year old

Peat and Brine

Reviewed by
Connosr member:

Victor

Date:

22nd Aug 2012

Reviewer rating:

About this score:

Nose: 21
Taste: 20
Finish: 20
Balance: 21

The average score for this whisky is 85.

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Tasting Notes by Victor

Nose: moderate to strong sweet peat, honey, and brine. There is a bit of smoke, but the peat is much more pronounced than is the smoke. Pleasant

Taste: sweet peat and a little smoke contrasted with brine is what you get. There is a bit of background slight fruit flavour as though from partial wine-cask aging. If so, it is a minor suit compared to the peated malt and brine theme. This is flavourful and simple

Finish: long peated finish, with the other flavours also remaining

Balance: this is quintessential moderately peated Islay malt. It will appeal to many peat buffs, though, to my palate, I prefer a heavier medicinal influence with my Islay peat, than this whisky has

Whisky details

Distillery/Brand:

Caol Ila

Bottling:

Caol ila 12 Year old

Region:

Islay

ABV:

43%

Colour:

Pale Straw

Caol ila 12 Year old Peat and Brine Reviewed on 2012-08-22T01:26:00 scoring 82/100 by Victor

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Comments

SquidgyAsh wrote:

Good review! Makes me hope that the 30 yr old Caol ila is ALOT better though. This is one of the few Islay's I've yet to try so fingers crossed!

22 August 2012 03:18

cpstecroix wrote:

You know, for an easy peated dram, on a fall afternoon, maybe in a flask, it's hard to go wrong with the Caol Ila 12. It may replace Laga 16 for me.

29 August 2012 01:54

Victor wrote:

@cpstecroix, and with your flask of Caol Ila 12, will you be playing rugby?

29 August 2012 02:07

mywhisky wrote:

Your reviews are always helpful victor, thanks. I would like to ask a question about a comment in the review. You said it was more peat than smoke. I'm new to scotch, but as I understand it peat is the sort of medicinal iodine component? I also assumed that the peat and the smokiness went hand in hand, but is there a malt that has good smoke without so much medicine?

31 October 2012 04:05

Victor wrote:

@mywhisky, 'medicinal iodine' usually refers to brine and the sea air components. These include sodium salt, iodine, seaweed, and perhaps some additional nuances from sea brine. 'Smoke' usually refers to the peat smoke used to dry the malted barley, which persists to some degree to be experienced in both the nose and the palate. 'Peat' separate from smoke is an experience of the decaying earthy vegetative matter which is peat, without the simultaneous smell and taste of smokiness, as from the burning of that peat. Some whiskies which use peatsmoke for barley malt drying will give very little taste of the smoke per se, but significant flavour of the peat itself, absent the burnt or smokey element. Some malts also use water from a peated source, but do not burn peat to generate smoke to dry the barley-malt. Bruichladdich Rocks, for example, uses peated water but does not use peat-smoke for drying the barley. You can taste the earthy peat there, but there is no smokiness. Smokiness is far more transient once you open the bottle than is peatiness. Even very smokey whiskies like most Laphroaigs will show a very large decrease in smokiness within a few weeks of opening a new bottle.

Smokey whiskies generally tend to be also briney/medicinal. There is still some range though. Some highland malts, like Brora, may be smokey with little briney medicinal component.

01 November 2012 02:46

mywhisky wrote:

Thank you so much for the clarification.

12 November 2012 04:39

Jonesz wrote:

Victor another Thank-you from me regarding the info on peat/smoke etc. Just wanting to branch into Islay whiskies and was confused as to what the terms referred to. In reading reviews I was treating them as the same thing. Jonesz

14 December 2012 21:38