Islay Single Cask Exclusives LNB002 CWC

David Stirk’s Creative Whisky Company recently launched the series Single Cask Exclusives, which do not reveal the distillery. Well, sorta. There is a cask reference. In this case it’s LNB. That is short for Loch Nam Burn, the water source of Caol Ila. The bottling did not get an age statement. It is quite atypical for Caol Ila on the nose. I get notes of the sea as well as citrus, but it is dominated by cooked ham and play-doh. That’s a combination that made me frown for a minutes, although it seems to work. On the palate, however, it is bull’s eye again. Citrus, barley sugar, vanilla, peat smoke, salt, oyster sap and liquorice are all present. But the play-doh returns, albeit without becoming a nuisance. The malt, however, is very much in your face. The finish is rather short on more of the same, but quite sharp and spicy. This is a scoundrel of a – clearly young – Caol Ila. Around 50 EUR.