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Caol Ila Single Malt Scotch Whisky


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BTW, Dave, I tried that McDavid bottling of the Caol Ila - simply wonderful. I feel like it's a little less harsh than the standard 12 y/o.

Nice...did you happen to note which year / age / refill cask type you tried? I don't think McDavid selects for a particular taste profile - age ranges from ~10 to 22+ years old, and they've refilled into bourbon, sherry, and who knows what else casks. Gubeen's still working on a young-ish (11) bourbon-casked one from a couple years ago.

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Nice...did you happen to note which year / age / refill cask type you tried? I don't think McDavid selects for a particular taste profile - age ranges from ~10 to 22+ years old, and they've refilled into bourbon, sherry, and who knows what else casks. Gubeen's still working on a young-ish (11) bourbon-casked one from a couple years ago.

This one is currently using a sherry cask

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This one is currently using a sherry cask

A caol ila in a sherry cask! that is unusual to say the least. All of mine are refill, refills and very light. I like the nepalm effect or as a bartender in the UK once said, reminiscent of fish and chips.

Does the sherry cask make it sweeter then other caol ila's you have had?

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Single Malts in general are aged in either used bourbon barrels or sherry casks primarily.

In the US, a bourbon barrel can only be used once. We then sell those barrels to the French, Mexicans, and the Scots for aging their Cognac, Tequila and Single malts respectively.

A Bourbon barrel used "once" can have been used for many years, hence the color of the whisky.

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A Bourbon barrel used "once" can have been used for many years, hence the color of the whisky.

Also caramel all too often influences the color. Murray McDavid is never caramel colored, but other single selection and multi barrel selections are.

The sherry cask Caol Ila is not as iodine-y and dirty ashtray like as one Caol Ila's I have had. The current Mortlach is wonderful but given that our recycling was just picked up, I cannot tell you what kind of cask it was finished in. Very full with a dark color and a rich red fruit flavor profile - ohhhh damnnnnn, there I go again violating Tim Hanni's rules against trying to describe wine or booze using real world flavor references- well it doesn't taste like Berringer White zinfandel :mellow:. Quite good.

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Also caramel all too often influences the color. Murray McDavid is never caramel colored, but other single selection and multi barrel selections are.

The sherry cask Caol Ila is not as iodine-y and dirty ashtray like as one Caol Ila's I have had. The current Mortlach is wonderful but given that our recycling was just picked up, I cannot tell you what kind of cask it was finished in. Very full with a dark color and a rich red fruit flavor profile - ohhhh damnnnnn, there I go again violating Tim Hanni's rules against trying to describe wine or booze using real world flavor references- well it doesn't taste like Berringer White zinfandel :mellow:. Quite good.

First of all I didn't notice this thread was started up until just now. Cool!

Secondly, Dean, I don't have your defined palate, but this bottling was definitely less harsh than your standard CI 12 y/o bottling. I mean, certainly, it seemed salty like an Islay, but was less peaty than I'm used to.

Edited because I was being redundant.

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but this bottling was definitely less harsh than your standard CI 12 y/o bottling. It was a far less harsh experience than your standard CI has. I mean, certainly, it seemed salty like an Islay, but was less peaty than I'm used to.

Agreed! I had a MMcD bottling that was all huge peat & ashtray and dirty bandaids on the nose and had a pallate impression that reminded me of an old gym! How wonderful it was!!! This sherry cask seems to smooth that out quite a bit.

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