North Star Caol Ila 7yo
Cask Series 015 | 60.9% ABV
Cool Caol Ila
Caol Ila 12 was one of the first bottles I bought near the beginning of my whisky journey. It was also the first full bottle of Islay single malt I purchased.
I took a punt on it, never having tried it before, but reading it was a solid entry-level peated malt and having watched a Ralfy video on “beginner whiskies” where he included it, I thought it might be up my alley. I’d just finished a 20cl bottle of Lagavulin 16 and it blew me away so I was on the lookout for something else from the Isle of Whisky. And Caol Ila 12 was cheaper than a full bottle of Lagavulin 16.
I thoroughly enjoyed that 12 year old and at 43%, it was pitched perfectly for where my newbie palate was at the time. The combination of brine, vegetal peat, slightly floral notes alongside sweetness, and light smoke was wonderfully pleasant and highly drinkable.
One thing that struck me about that malt, though, was something I picked up that I didn’t read about in others’ tasting notes. Caol Ila 12 tasted cold to me. Not cold like a freezer, but cool. This was new. I wasn’t drinking it from a bottle I’d kept anywhere cold, but the coolness was less about liquid temperature than it was about the particular aesthetic sensation and experience I had with that particular bottle.
It was something about the briny quality and coastal nature – perhaps it transported my sensory brain to the memory of a cold Scottish coast experience. Perhaps there was the subconscious recall of a trip to Sandwood Bay in northwest Scotland, where I’d hoped for an overnight beach camp. But after a long walk, Mother Nature decided to very rudely shoo me away with blustery wind and horizontal rain that prevented me from setting up a tent and sandblasted me as a “goodbye” as I quickly crawled up and out of the bay, across bleak moorland back to the car. To this day, I think one of the calm Highland cattle I passed in that torrential monsoon shook his head at me.
I’ve never come across this coolness in any independently bottled Caol Ila. It’s certainly not for lack of trying: I love indie Caol Ila and try it whenever I can. The alchemy of Caol Ila as a distillate works in nearly every type of cask and finish, at least in my opinion. This lovely seven year old is, unlike the distillery release 12 year old, pleasantly warming, coming back in-line with the normal trend of peated malts bringing that comforting experience. This North Star falls into one of my favourite categories: peat and sherry. These two are, of course, said to be the most warming of whisky categories – whiskies for autumn and cold weather. Mood malts for whisky weather.
And here I am drinking it in the sunshine in my wee corner of Scotland.
Review
North Star Caol Ila 7yo, Cask Series 015, May 2021, Refill Sherry Butt, 1 of 622 bottles, 60.9% ABV
£42 limited availability
The tasting notes on the bottle guide me with “caramelised lemon slices on a BBQ” on the nose and “cigar smoke, mango & peat ash” on the palate with “lime menthol & grated grapefruit” on the finish.
Nose
Punchy: the nose informs you right away that this is a hefty 60.9%. Yet the high ABV that might otherwise deliver a sharp nose is tempered just enough by the cask. Dusty sherry, smoky ash/ashy smoke drizzled with oloroso.
Palate
Briny ash, sweet citrus fruits on a grill, lime and meat drippings. Nicely balanced: the cask influence and spirit are very much working in tandem here without one overpowering the other. The sherry influence layers through the grilled-fruit-meat drippings wonderfully.
The Dregs
For value, this bottle is a no-brainer. I paid £42 for this, a single cask, cask-strength, sherried Islay single malt. Yes it’s young, but there’s more than enough here to keep me interest, and I’d be hard-pressed to find a better value bottle in the peat-sherry-Islay-cask strength category today.
This is closer to 6.5/10 for me score-wise, and I’m tempted to push upwards to 7/10. I’m reigning myself in a bit here, since I know my palate can’t get enough peat and sherry. This is very much up my alley and I should take a slight step back and assess it a bit more objectively, even if that’s nigh on impossible.
The youth here raises a point I hear spoken more often these days, of how younger peated whiskies show off punchy peaty vibrancy that many years in a cask have long since toned down in older whiskies. That this point has entered conversation more frequently lately probably reflects at least in part the fact that older age-statement whiskies, particularly from Islay, are moving out of reach price-wise for many of us.
Gone are the days of £49 Lagavulin 16, and there’s no point even mentioning older Ardbeg, Bowmore, or others. I can’t say I have much – or any, really – experience with these older whiskies, but if indies like the wonderful North Star keep bringing us this kind of quality younger malts for these kinds of prices, regardless of whether or not they’re cool or warm, you won’t find me complaining at all.
Score: 6/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. DD