Caol Ila 16 Year Old Feis Ile 2020 Single Malt Review

Courtesy of Caol Ila

We are still on Islay for today’s review and we’re heading back to the north east of the island. Overlooking the Sound of Islay is the Diageo blending behemoth of Caol Ila. While most of it’s malt goes towards Johnnie Walker their is of course a sizeable enough core range of which I’ve managed to review a couple of to varying degrees of success.

Sadly Caol Ila hasn’t been immune to Diageo’s ever urgent premiumisation of its brands and subsequent price rises. While indie bottlings of Caol Ila have been the place to get really good expressions of the distillery for quite a while now, with the price jumps this proves to be even more true. Sadly official bottlings now don’t interest me that much, which is a shame as this distillery helped cement my love of all things peaty.

The special editions too were something I’d overlook, especially during the Covid year’s when there were literally vans from the auction houses waiting at distillery gates for bottles to make the short trip from the till to their bulging carriages before hastily being delivered to the mainland for a rather tasty profit. I’m glad to see that sort of behaviour has become less frequent and also much less profitable.

I was treated to a sample of a 2020 Feis Ile release and have finally got round to posting my notes.

Let’s Taste.

Caol Ila 16 Year Old Feis Ile 2020 53.9% abv £120

Finished in Amoroso treated hogsheads. 3000 bottles.

Nose: Wet shells, chalk, lemon peel and green olives. Sea spray, licorice and a soft nuttiness too. Dusty, slightly medicinal. Pine needles. Glazed pastries and draft, marmalade and roasted ham studded with cloves. Water brings out a little fig, mango and nutmeg.

Palate: First sip hits you with cracked black pepper, clove rock sweets and a healthy amount of phenol action. Second sip brings vanilla cream, hot honey, iodine and tropical fruit notes of mango and pineapple plus bbq sauce glazed hams. There’s a herbal character too of tarragon and sage. Water amplifies the tropical fruit as well as coffee cake.

Finish: Medium in length with green herbs, walnuts and a medicinal sweetness.

Score: 8 out of 10

Overall: A cracker of a Coal Ila. A little darker in tone compared to the Thompson Bros 10 year old but this has lots going on. Definitely a dram to spend time with as there are a constant supply of evolving aromas and flavours. Great stuff!

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