Review / Caol Ila 13 years old Fèis Ìle 2023 Edition

This whisky is the annual limited edition bottling for the Fèis Ìle festival from the Islay distillery of Caol Ila. The Caol Ila Fèis Ìle 2023 Edition is released at 13 years old and has been matured in ex-Oloroso and ex-Pedro Ximenez sherry seasoned casks. These casks were selected by Sam Hale, the Distillery Manager at Caol Ila, and his warehouse team. It is bottled at the natural cask strength of 60.4% ABV and will cost £185. The new whisky will only be available at the distillery visitor centre until sold out. It was released to celebrate the Caol Ila open day on Monday, May 29. The exact number of bottles was not revealed in the press release.

Fèis Ìle 2018 - Goodbye, Farewell

Down on the beach at Bunnahabhain.

The annual Fèis Ìle took place last week and saw the world descend on the famous whisky producing Hebredian island of Islay for eight days of events, whisky and music. Matt was amongst them and here is his final report.

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Thursday evening presented a moment that I had been dreading. That moment when you realise that something good is almost over. In reality, it had been slowly creeping up on my during the day that had seen me visit Islay's two newest distilleries - the soon-to-be completed Ardnahoe and Kilchoman, which became the island's eighth distillery in 2005.

Fèis Ìle 2018 - Something Old, Something New

The one photo of Ardnahoe we can show.

The annual Fèis Ìle is upon us again. The world descends on the famous whisky producing Hebredian island of Islay for a week of events, whisky and music. Matt is amongst them and will be reporting back at various points during the week.

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The locals were beginning to tell us that Islay was always like this. It was difficult not to believe them as the sunny and warm weather continued through the annual Feis Ile week and in to the Bowmore open day on Wednesday.

Of course, those of us that have visited before knew that Islay can be a fickle beast – fine one minute and then truly wretched the next. So far, we kept our fingers crossed for the rest of the week.

Fèis Ìle 2018 - Islay's Days In The Sun

#OpinionsWelcome - Like a bright Spring day at Laphroaig.

The annual Fèis Ìle is upon us again. The world descends on the famous whisky producing Hebredian island of Islay for a week of events, whisky and music. Matt is amongst them and will be reporting back at various points during the week.

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When arriving on the island on Sunday, the weather was lovely. The plane over revealed the wonderful Scottish landscape as we flew over Loch Lomond and the Kintyre peninsula, and finally the Paps of Jura and Loch Indaal. Popping in to the Bruichladdich open day quickly upon arrival saw many with a healthy glow from the sun. Some had a much redder and more unhealthy glow. Islay, and the Campbeltown festival before it, were threatening to put on a proper show.

Fèis Ìle 2018 - The Anticipation

Watch out Islay, here we come ...

The annual Fèis Ìle is upon us again. The world descends on the famous whisky producing Hebredian island of Islay for a week of events, whisky and music. Matt is amongst them and will be reporting back at various points during the week.

________

This will be my fourth visit to Islay and my second to the Fèis Ìle. I am lucky in that the world of whisky takes me on numerous trips to numerous distilleries, but few compare to Islay. The island is a true Mecca for whisky lovers and they visit in their thousands for this one week of malt and music.

Review - The Feis Ile 2017 bottlings

For the last week, I have had the pleasure of being on Islay for my first taste of the annual Feis Ile festival. The festival is a celebration of the island's culture and music, but most importantly its whisky. Whisky is engrained in to Islay life and its distilleries are known the world over, mostly for their unique smoky and peaty flavours.

Every year at the festival each of the Islay's eight single malt distilleries have an open day. Part of this involves releasing a special limited edition bottling that are only available to those attending the distilleries during the festival.Demand is normally very high and sees whisky fans queuing up at distillery gates in the early hours of each morning to make sure they secure a bottle.

Inbox - The Weeks' Whisky News (May 29, 2015)

Welcome to this week's Inbox.  For those that have recently discovered us, Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our email inbox. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece received. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday.

Review - Ardbeg Perpetuum

The annual release for Ardbeg Day at the Islay Festival always creates a big stir amongst the whisky community each year. This year's bottling is named Perpetuum, which means 'forever' or 'ongoing' in Latin, and kicks off the distillery's 200th anniversary celebrations.  The Perpetuum has been created by Dr. Bill Lumsden and he has taken inspiration from the different styles of Ardbeg that have been made over the past two centuries.  The final whisky contains a mix of different ages and casks, including a small amount of the oldest Ardbeg malt currently available.

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (May 8, 2015)

Welcome to this week's Inbox.  For those that have recently discovered us, Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our email inbox. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece received. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday.

New release - Ardbeg 'Auriverdes'

News of the annual Ardbeg Day release always creates a stir in the whisky industry and this year's is no different. This year's release, named Auriverdes, has been matured in American oak casks with specially toasted cask lids that were created specially for this whisky. The name means 'gold and green' and is the nickname of the Brazilian football team, the hosts of this year's football World Cup. In this case, 'gold' refers to the whisky and 'green' refers to the bottle ...

Inbox - May 30, 2014

Welcome to this week's Inbox.  For those that have recently discovered us, Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our email inbox. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece received. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday.

Inbox - May 24, 2013

Welcome to this week's Inbox.  For those that have recently discovered us, Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our email inbox. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece received. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday.

New release - Laphroaig Cáirdeas 2012

When the recent news came through that the famous Islay distillery of Laphroaig (pronounced la-froyg) had made a limited amount of their annual Cáirdeas whisky (an annual bottling for the Islay Festival) available for purchase to Friends of Laphroaig members, then we had to act quickly and order one having missed out in previous years.  This year's Cáirdeas release celebrates the 18th anniversary of the Friends of Laphroaig - a members club for fans of the Islay malt (you can sign up for free at www.laphroaig.com).

Laphroaig is one of the most famous whisky brands in the world. The name is derived from the Gaelic for 'beautiful hollow by the broad bay' and the distillery is located on the island of Islay, which lies off the western coast of Scotland. Both Laphroaig and Islay are renowned for producing very smoky, peaty flavoured whisky. The distillery was founded in 1810 by two brothers, Alexander and Donald Johnson, and is currently owned by drinks company Beam Global. It has an annual production capacity of 2.9 million litres and the Laphroaig 10 years old is also the best selling smoky whisky in the world.

Cáirdeas is the Gaelic word for 'friendship' and is pronounced in a variety of ways, the most common being caar-diss. The 2012 version is created from a mix of different styles of Laphroaig - 50% is made up of whisky aged between 13 and 21 years of age, and the other 50% is whisky which has been specially maturing in quarter casks for seven years.  It has been bottled at 51.2% ABV and was available for £45 a bottle + postage. That sounded like a bargain to us and it has now sold out, so lots of people agreed with our assessment!  Our bottle survived the UK postal system and has just arrived, so here is what we think about it ...

Our tasting notes
The colour is a pale golden yellow and the nose is instantly packed with powerful and feisty aromas.  A tar-like acrid smoke is the most obvious characteristic and this feels like it initially overpowers everything else, but with time there are some distinct notes of sweetness in the form of honey and golden syrup.  Underneath these are more subtle aromas of malty cereals, vanilla and hints of brine and damp earth.

On the palate, the whisky feels slightly oily and a little fiery and hot.  The flavour profile follows a similar direction to that of the nose and kicks off with a large hit of peaty, acrid smokiness.  This smoke has elements of coal tar soap, oily rags and damp moss to it and is very expressive.  As the smokiness begins to fade, other elements are revealed and these create a delicious balance.  The first of these elements is a distinct high sweet note of icing sugar,  - think of oat cake biscuits, bittersweet cereal grains, honey, vanilla, a pinch of salt and hints of aniseed, nutmeg and red chili.

The finish is very long with the powerful smokiness lingering for a significant time.  Initially there is some of the cereal and honey-like sweetness as seen on the nose and palate, but once this fades then the finish becomes dry and mouth watering.  The prominent peat smoke exaggerates this.

As this whisky is bottled, we added a few drops of water.  This didn't have any impact on the power and flavour of the peat smoke, but took the edge of the heat and spiciness of the alcohol.  The whisky became creamier and softer with the vanilla, honey and cereal notes seeming more prominent.  Which ever way that you choose to drink it, this whisky remains delicious and won't disappoint.

What's the verdict?
This year's version of the Laphroaig Cáirdeas is a wonderfully charismatic whisky.  It packs a powerful peaty punch and is a great example of the smoky style of whisky.  As a result, it will not be everyone's cup of tea - the extremely smoky whiskies are widely regarded as an acquired taste after all. 

Laphroaig are one of the best exponents of this style and we feel lucky (and glad) that we have finally secured one of these special releases, after previous failures.  For those of you that have been equally as successful - well done and enjoy your reward.  For those of you not so fortunate - there's always next year, as we kept telling ourselves ...

New release - Ardbeg Day

The Ardbeg Day whisky is the cult distillery's contribution to Islay Festival, or Feis Isle as it is sometimes known.  Each year at the Festival each of the famous whisky island's eight distilleries, plus Jura across the water, release a special collectors bottling on their individual open days.  The Ardbeg open day is traditionally on the last Saturday of the Festival and this year was no different.  Therefore on Saturday 2 June the Ardbeg Day single malt was released.

The Ardbeg distillery produces some of the peatiest and smokiest whiskies in the world.  It is located on the south eastern coast of the famous Scottish whisky producing island of Islay, which is famous for producing the smoky, peaty style of whisky.  Ardbeg was founded in 1815 by John MacDougall, although records show a distillery operating on the site as far back as 1794. The current owners are drinks company Moet Hennessey, who took over in 1997.  The distillery is small with a capacity of just one million litres per year.  The range of single malt whiskies from Ardbeg has built up a cult following of whisky drinkers across the world.

The Ardbeg Day whisky is a limited edition of 12,000 bottles and is a marriage of two different styles of Ardbeg, which have been re-racked in ex-sherry casks for the last six months.  It has been bottled at 56.7% ABV and is priced at £65 a bottle. The special bottling follows the tradition of previous years having been released to the Ardbeg Committee members first.  It is also on sale in the network of Ardbeg Embassies (of which there are now over 100 worldwide).  If you haven't joined the Committee yet, then you can do for free by visiting www.ardbeg.com - you can also find out the location of your nearest Ardbeg Embassy on the same website.

Our tasting notes
The colour is a pale golden yellow and the nose is pungent and full of vibrancy.  There are plenty of honey and vanilla aromas, but the stand out feature is the heavy earthy peat smoke.  This tends towards coal tar soap and petrol fumes with extra time in the glass.  There are also hints of ginger biscuits, oat cakes, cinnamon, candied peel and raisins.

On the palate this feels clean and fresh, while initially being quite fiery and a little oily.  This oily feeling coats the mouth with heavy notes of robust malted cereals (think of oat cakes especially) and rich, thick earthy phenolic peat smoke (imagine damp moss).  This smoke becomes more reminiscent of hot tar as it develops, moving away from the earthiness.  It is only once these prominent notes begin to fade that other more subtle notes appear - honey, vanilla, dried apple, raisins, toasted nuts and hints of dark chocolate and bitter orange.  Further depth and complexity is added by some drier and spicy notes - think of earthy ginger root, cinnamon and oak.

The finish is very long with the slightly bitter smokiness hanging around the longest.  It is wonderfully dry, spicy (think of those wood spices again) and mouthwatering after some initial honey and vanilla sweetness fades.  There is also some chilli-like heat.

The high alcohol level lends itself to adding some water.  With a small splash the whisky becomes creamier on the palate with the chilli heat and bitter smoke softening, and the vanilla in particular becoming more prominent.  The nose also changes in a very interesting way by exhibiting some yeasty/doughy and green apple aromas, along with a slightly floral perfume.

What's the verdict?
This is an intense single malt that is big, smoky and feisty.  Fans of this style of whisky will undoubtedly love it as it exhibits everything that you would expect from it.  The high ABV cask strength aspect exaggerates these aromas and flavours, making Ardbeg Day extremely expressive. 

Most will probably need a drop or two of water to be added, especially those new to cask strength or very peaty whiskies. A lovely honeyed sweetness compliments the spicy and smoky notes almost perfectly.  A fine effort from Ardbeg and more balanced than some of their other recent limited edition releases ... we have enjoyed our belated celebration of Ardbeg Day.

Ardbeg Day is coming ...

This week sees the Islay Whisky & Music Festival (known as Feis Isle in Gaelic) taking place on the famous whisky producing island of Islay in Scotland.  The Festival sees whisky and music fans converge on the island in their thousands to sample some of the finest Scotch whisky and equally fine Scottish music.  As part of the Festival, each of Islay's eight distilleries (plus Jura which is a short hop over the water) have an open day where visitors can tour the distillery, take part in other activities and get the opportunity to buy a special release limited edition bottling from each.

This year, one of our favourite Islay whiskies is doing something just a little different.  Ardbeg, which is located on the southern coast of the island, is not only launching a new whisky but is also taking the festivities to a new level with Ardbeg Day - a worldwide celebration of all things Ardbeg - on Saturday 2 June, which is also the Feis Isle open day at the distillery.  Let's start with the whisky ...

The Ardbeg Day bottling will follow the tradition of previous years and be released to the Ardbeg Committee members, plus be on sale in the network of Ardbeg Embassies around the world (of which there are now over 100) on 2 June.  If you haven't joined the Committee yet, then you can do for free by visiting www.ardbeg.com.

The whisky is a limited edition of 12,000 bottles and is a marriage of two different styles of Ardbeg, which have been re-racked in ex-sherry casks for the last six months.  It has been bottled at 56.7% ABV and is rumoured to be priced at around £60 a bottle.  When we get our hands on some we plan to review it, so watch this space.

Ardbeg has always been one of the industry leaders in terms of creative edge, and Ardbeg Day is no different.  The other activities centre around the Islay-limpics (- see what they've done there?) and numerous 'sporting' events are taking place around the world on 2 June.  This is happening at the distillery during the Feis Isle open day and in the 'embassies' around the world, including Australia, across Europe, Japan, New Zealand and Taiwan.  Click here to find your nearest Ardbeg Embassy.

There are prizes being awarded for taking part in the various 'sporting' events associated with the Islay-limpics when visiting the distillery or an Embassy.  However if you aren't going to Islay or don't have an Embassy near you, then there is another option ... and we can help you with it!

Ardbeg have created a cyberspace 'treasure hunt' for those unable to attend any events.  They have selected a number of leading whisky blogs and websites around the world and placed a unique Islay-limpics collector's card on each, highlighting some of the 'sporting events'.  All you have to do is locate all of the Islay-limpics collectors cards and the first 100 people to do so will win some Ardbeg prizes.

Clues as to the locations of the cards will be broadcast in the coming days through the Ardbeg Committee, Ardbeg Facebook page and Ardbeg Twitter feed.  However, we can give you the first clue right now - one of them is below!  Click on it for further instructions.  Good luck - we hope that you find the other cards and win some Ardbeg goodies ....

New releases > Jura 1996 Boutique Barrel

This special edition single malt has been released to celebrate Jura’s recent involvement in the world famous Islay whisky festival. One French Limousin oak cask was chosen by a select group of Jura residents from the distillery's warehouses and this cask has yielded just 493 bottles. It was then bottled at a cask strength of 54% ABV and will be sold exclusively on the island from the distillery shop at a cost of £100 each. It has just been released and is predicted to sell fast, so if you want one - hurry up!

The Jura distillery is located on the isle of Jura, which lies off the west coast of Scotland next to the famous whisky island of Islay. The distillery was founded in 1810 by Archibald Campbell and was originally called Small Isles distillery - named after the numerous small islands located in Craighouse Bay, which the distillery overlooks. It was closed for a long period between 1901 and 1960, when it was rebuilt and re-named as Jura by Charles Mackinlay & Co. Production restarted in 1963. The distillery has an annual production capacity of two million litres, which is large when considering its remoteness and the small population of the island (currently only 220 people).

Jura was given its name by invading Nordic warriors and it translates as 'deer island', because of the large number of the animals that inhabit the island. The current owners of the distillery are Whyte & Mackay, who are owned by the Indian drinks company United Spirits. They use Jura’s whisky in their popular range of Whyte & Mackay blends. However, they are putting more in to promoting Jura as a single malt whisky and sales have improved greatly. The Jura distillery is rare in that it produces whisky in different styles – of the current core range, the 10, 16, 18 and 21 years old are non-smoky, the Superstition is mildly smoky and the Prophecy is very smoky. There are older or limited releases from time to time, such as this 1996 Boutique Barrel version.

Our tasting notes
The colour is a deep golden amber and the nose is rich and intense, with plenty of immediate oak aromas.  The richness is further enhanced by distinct aromas of burnt dark sugar (think of caramel especially), robust malted barley grains and potent wood spices (imagine cinnamon, nutmeg and sandalwood).  With time, an increasing note of bitter (or maybe spiced?) orange comes through - this adds balance, as do other background aromas of cocoa, milky coffee, cloves and a tiny hint of salty brine.  On the palate, this whisky is again rich and intense, gripping your taste buds from the beginning.  It feels firm and viscous in the mouth and the flavour profile is driven by the same key elements as the nose - plenty of oak and barley grain, burnt sugary caramel and wood spices.  These are complimented by notes of bittersweet spiced orange (this is almost marmalade-like), honey and hints of cocoa powder and tangy brine.  The finish is heavy with the bitter zesty orange notes, which fight for attention with robust wood spices and plenty of gripping oak.  The intensity is good and leads to the finish being dry and mouth watering.  With a splash of water, the whisky opens further - the spices and oak are dampened slightly, giving a creamier feeling and the orange notes become more prominent.

What's the verdict?
This is a lovely and rich whisky that offers plenty of intensity and character.  It may be a bit oaky, spicy and drying for some palates but these elements can be tempered by the addition of water, if you choose to.  The whisky has a deep complexity and is trying to stand out from the crowd, which must be applauded.  However, if you want a bottle it is only available from the distillery shop, so start planning your trip now!