Caol Ila 9 Year Old 2007 CaskAid

I must confess, until recently I had never heard of this Belgian bottler. But CaskAid is an npo that selects nice single casks, bottles them and then donates the proceeds to charity. What’s not to like? Drinking whisky as social engagement? Count me in! The have quite a few casks on their resume already, as can be seen on their site at caskaid.be. I try their very pale Caol Ila 2007 that was bottled in November 2016, just 72 bottles strong. The maritime elements are there, but quickly fade to the background. This nose is mostly about breakfast cereals, pears, barley sugar and some stable scent. From the second sip onwards, it is clear that this is very young stuff and some goat cheese kicks in. That is somewhat atypical and unexpected, but quite interesting as well. It is creamy sweet on the palaéte with a truckload of vanilla. The smoke quickly builds and becomes quite big. But again this is mostly about the sweet side of Caol Ila as opposed to the maritime side. Still atypical, but still good. The finish is medium long, smoky and sweet. This is probably one of my least favorite Caol Ila so far, but still very good. Let that be clear, please. Having said that I have had much better Caol Ila, even at such a young age (or even younger).

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