Caol Ila 25 Years Old Natural Cask Strength 58.4% 1979

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Serge Valentin (89)

I think this was the second version of the official 25 yo . Colour: pale straw.

Nose: one of the most maritime Caol Ilas I ever had, starting on unusual notes of sea urchins, iodine, all sorts of seashells, oysters… The smoke is more discreet after all these years and so is the peat 'generally speaking'. It develops more on cider apples, fresh butter, liquorice sticks, violet sweets, with also whiffs of church incense. Also fresh turnip and salsify, hints of manure, wet stones... The balance is perfect. With water (45% vol.): we have more fresh butter, notes of lambwool, pine needles, hints of breadcrumb, marzipan... Fresh, clean and subtle, not too far from a younger version, just less round and fruity and more complex and subtle. But that's the whole point, I guess…


Mouth (neat): expressive, much fruitier than the nose and, above all, extremely salty. Quite drinkable at such high strength. Goes on with lemon zests, mastic, argan oil… Gets saltier and saltier. With water: the tannins awake and so does the pepper, but there's still lots of salt. Lemon seeds. Something of a dry martini.

Finish: rather long, nicely bitter and resinous, with quite some liquorice stick and notes of gentian spirit.

Maybe not as complex as its brothers from the south shore or from Skye but this Caol Ila still really stays the course.