Caol Ila 12 Year Old

Good review! Makes me hope that the 30 yr old Caol ila is ALOT better though. This is one of the few Islay's I've yet to try so fingers crossed!

You know, for an easy peated dram, on a fall afternoon, maybe in a flask, it's hard to go wrong with the Caol Ila 12. It may replace Laga 16 for me.

@cpstecroix, and with your flask of Caol Ila 12, will you be playing rugby?

Your reviews are always helpful victor, thanks. I would like to ask a question about a comment in the review. You said it was more peat than smoke. I'm new to scotch, but as I understand it peat is the sort of medicinal iodine component? I also assumed that the peat and the smokiness went hand in hand, but is there a malt that has good smoke without so much medicine?

@mywhisky, 'medicinal iodine' usually refers to brine and the sea air components. These include sodium salt, iodine, seaweed, and perhaps some additional nuances from sea brine. 'Smoke' usually refers to the peat smoke used to dry the malted barley, which persists to some degree to be experienced in both the nose and the palate. 'Peat' separate from smoke is an experience of the decaying earthy vegetative matter which is peat, without the simultaneous smell and taste of smokiness, as from the burning of that peat. Some whiskies which use peatsmoke for barley malt drying will give very little taste of the smoke per se, but significant flavour of the peat itself, absent the burnt or smokey element. Some malts also use water from a peated source, but do not burn peat to generate smoke to dry the barley-malt. Bruichladdich Rocks, for example, uses peated water but does not use peat-smoke for drying the barley. You can taste the earthy peat there, but there is no smokiness. Smokiness is far more transient once you open the bottle than is peatiness. Even very smokey whiskies like most Laphroaigs will show a very large decrease in smokiness within a few weeks of opening a new bottle.

Smokey whiskies generally tend to be also briney/medicinal. There is still some range though. Some highland malts, like Brora, may be smokey with little briney medicinal component.

Thank you so much for the clarification.

Victor another Thank-you from me regarding the info on peat/smoke etc. Just wanting to branch into Islay whiskies and was confused as to what the terms referred to. In reading reviews I was treating them as the same thing. Jonesz