Coilltean No Age 2nd Cuvée

For over 40 years the Italian legend Samaroli bottled whisky under both his Samaroli and Coilltean labels. This is the so-called Coilltean 2nd Cuvée, composed of several undisclosed distilleries’ malts. It’s a blended malts that was released in 1997 in a limited edition of only 480 bottles. The back labels states that it’s a vatting of ‘Scotland’s last traditional distilleries’.

Weird and mostly green nose on all sorts of… err… plants and bushes. Chicken broth? What is going on here? Graphite! I feel like am sniffing a box of coloring pencils. But barely any fruit to speak of bar a lost raspberry. Touch of caramel.

It is a bit more fruity on the palate, but still quite odd. Barely any fruit, but a bit more caramel, clear hints of peat (this surely contains Islay) and fairly sharp for such a modest ABV. But I cannot claim to like this very much.

Medium long, metallic finish on spices.

What a bizarre experience. Perhaps the bottle has been open too long? Was this truly the original nose and taste, I wonder? Anyway, thanks, Enrico!