Caol Ila 15 Year Old Special Release 2018

All the love of a well-aged Caol Ila Single Malt is sweet without the smoke.

In Gaelic, Caol Ila is pronounced "cull ē-la" and it means "sound of Islay." And sure enough, this distillery sits right on the water facing the deep-water strait between Islay and Jura… smack dab in smoky-Single-Malt paradise. The Caol Ila Distillery — owned by Diageo — is a production machine, cranking out 3.5 million liters of the peaty amber liquid each year. But its Whisky is in high demand as a core component to dozens of premium blends — including Johnnie Walker’s top tier. In fact, the major blends take 95% of production, leaving only 5% to go into their signature Single Malts.

This Whisky is NOT the Caol Ila you expect. That’s because even though islay is famous for their smoky peaty drams, Caol Ila 15 Year Old Special Release 2016 is the exception. You see, once per year the distillery scrubs-down the stills and tanks and runs just a few batches of their Single Malt WITHOUT peat. The malt is dry-toasted without smoke at all. The 2016 Special Release was aged a full fifteen years in a combination of ex-Bourbon and refill European casks. So, what you get is a very limited run of sweet Spirit with the influence of land, sea, and air but without the smoke. And it bottled at a powerful 59.1% ABV, so you’re going to love it.