Caol Ila 15 Unpeated 2014 Review

Hi everyone,

I’ve always wanted to try one of these unpeated Caol Ila’s that Diageo release almost every year.

If you didn’t know, Caol Ila produce some highland style whisky for their blends. This is supposedly unpeated because the barley used isn’t peated, but because there’s so much peated whisky going through the system (stills, pipework, tanks, etc.), the phenols can get through anyway and I’ve heard reports that these unpeated Caol Ila’s can still be pretty peaty. Especially at their high proof.

 

Caol Ila 15 Unpeated 60.39%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Ethereal and light. Yellow apple, yellow Physalis dessert fruit, heather, some honey, spice behind. No peat actually.

Water: Ah, closes up like a clam. Takes time to come back at all. Honey crumbed ham.

Taste: Intense, yellow apple, grape, soft soot, brown sugar, oily. Very softly smoky, mainly oily and softly sweet.

Water: More spicy, more heather and white pepper, more smoke.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Oils and brown sugar are left. Longer with water with smoke and spice.

2014 release. I think this was better neat in the end, and although I’d heard that these can be peaty, I only found whispers of it on this one.

77/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #519

Whisky Network Review #611

Network Average: 74.6

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

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50-59 Bad

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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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