Caol Ila 2003 & 2007 Signatory UCF Reviews

Hi everyone,

Two Caol Ila's from me today, both exclusives from Belgium (the last ones I promise!).

Caol Ila is a hugely adaptable whisky. It can be good young, great old. Soft or smoky, medicinal or sweet, powerful or light.

 

Caol Ila 2003 Signatory 55.4%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: A very maritime Caol Ila. Almost fishy, coal smoke, low tide aromas, campfire, very spirit driven and all the better for it. Salt coated fish, baked sea bass. Sausage rolls and petrol with water.

Taste: Salty hit, very maritime, seaweed, then some sweetness with honey then more smoky and lovely mineral notes. Coal, iodine, oily. Some petrol with water, but thinner. Loses the mouth feel.

Finish: Medium length. Mineral then some more smoke.

Bottled 2015 for the Nectar. A great nose, taste doesn't quite follow up to it.

75/100

Caol Ila 2007 Signatory 46%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Immediately lighter, younger and fruitier. Estery, smoky pear, green apple, maritime, kelp.

Taste: Young esters and a bit thin, then lovely smoky maritime kelp and low tide stuff.

Finish: Medium length. Much better with white pepper then nice mineral smoke.

An exclusive for various whisky shops. A very nice finish on this one but noses young.

70/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Reviews #424-#425

Whisky Network Reviews #471-#472

Network Average: 74.6

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 44

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

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