Archive For The “Caol Ila” Category

Big Peat Christmas 2015 Edition – The Cask Strength Peat Monster….

By |

Big Peat Christmas 2015 Edition – The Cask Strength Peat Monster….

I visited Douglas Laing in Glasgow the other week. I will have a full report of the most enjoyable visit, but for today I wanted to review the Christmas edition of Big Peat, out every year for the holidays at Cask Strength. This year there were two important developments, both of which were mentioned on this blog,…

Read more »

Fèis Ìle Caol Ila Open day – Tasting the 2014 Fèis Ìle Bottling

By |

Fèis Ìle Caol Ila Open day – Tasting the 2014 Fèis Ìle Bottling

It seems that for 2015 Diageo decided to make another use of their Distiller’s Reserve casks and do a triple maturation: First standard casks,  then using the DE casks (PX for Lagavulin and Moscatel for Caol Ila) for a second  maturation and “old oak puncheons”  for a third gentle maturation. I’m not really sure what…

Read more »

Caol Ila 25 – Maturity Suits this Dram Well!

By |

Caol Ila 25 – Maturity Suits this Dram Well!

Caol Ila (which means “The sound of Islay” in Gaelic) is one of the main signature malts in the Diageo blends, but not only as a peated whisky. We all know that Caol Ila produces unpeated whisky, as there’s a (now) annual release of this unpeated whisky as part of the annual Special Releases by…

Read more »

The Deadly Sins of Whisky – Diageo’s 2014 Special Releases

By |

The Deadly Sins of Whisky – Diageo’s 2014 Special Releases

The long anticipated 2014 Diageo releases has arrived, and I sadly stand vindicated. Just a few months ago I wrote a piece on the absurdity of Diageo’s Port Ellen pricing policy, claiming that whisky suppliers are as guilty as collectors for creating the bubble in whisky prices by setting prices that make the whisky so prohibitively…

Read more »