Caol Ila 10 Year Old 2000 Berry Bros & Rudd

Purveyor to the royal household Berry Brothers from London often puts out malts under their own label, like this young Caol Ila from 2000. It was bottled especially for Whisky Import Nederland in 2011. Lovely strength, if you ask me. Very pale liquid.

Sweet and sour on lime juice, peach with mild peat smoke and something umami that reminds me of cold roast beef. Then it turns a bit medicinal (healing ointment) and salty (seaweeds and salt). Suddenly I get a big note of… pickles! This is nice and thanks to the fine integration of alcohol it does not burn your nose, despite the 57.1% ABV.

It has a lovely oily structure and the arrival is pretty soft. Good continuation of the nose – lime, sea salt, brackish water and some apples – but with an uppercut of the peat, giving it quite some punch. It is perfectly quaffable without water and simply delicious. An extra dose of caramel makes for a fine balance between salt and sweet notes. Very good.

Some ashes on the very long finish, the pickles return and after both the saltiness and the sweetness have made an encore.

This makes me happy. Very happy.

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