The Caol Ila 14 special bottling by High Spirits

The Kindred Spirits episodes I’ve recorded with John Anthony have reawakened my deep appreciation for whisky. I had a few years where—amidst my protracted quest amidst the dark forest—I had stayed away from it all. But lo! I’m back.

And, in my attempt to continue to cultivate this space as something of a personal blog, I thought I might get into the habit of occasionally sharing my tasting notes.

I still follow the steps I’ve outlined in Whisky: a gateway to mindfulness.

The Caol Ila 14 year old “Masters of Magic” bottling by High Spirits

High Spirits is an Italian independent bottler specialising in ‘single cask single malts bottled at cask strength’. There’s very little to be found about their whiskies, and this particular expression is one of only 311 bottles from a single hogshead. It was distilled in January 2008 (right amidst the beginning of the great financial crisis, and our descent into ‘The Fourth Turning’) and bottled in March 2022. It has an abv of 55% and comes in a resplendent box.

I picked up this bottle from Whisky & Alement mostly because of the artwork. Not that I am the human-skull-keeping kind of wizard[^ Why would I hold my grimoire open with a skull when I could use our Henry Wilson Brass Book Weight? Amirite?]—but still, the wizard depicted has the expression of one perplexed. I can relate. Like: why is there a devil holding a snake and dancing in front of me, with bats? I hope the bats don’t leave guano all over the place. I need a whisky.

This is also my first sample from the Caol Ila distillery. I’d been meaning to branch out to a few more Islay whiskies. As someone who grew up by the ocean, there’s something incredibly potent about any ‘coastal’ offering. Particularly a ‘lightly peated’ one. There’s so much more complexity to be found than in a non-peated or heavily peated whisky. To my palate at least.

Here’s what this whisky evoked for me.

Nose: fish & chip shop potato cake, balsa wood, caster sugar, rock pools, white ash
Palate: oysters with a squeeze of lemon, olive oil, hundreds & thousands on white bread, burnt sugar
Finish: lit newspaper, warm granite, jetty wood

I don’t believe in numerical ratings for whiskies,[^ Nice try, m̴̡͙̥͑́͝ǫ̷̆͆ḷ̷̠́̆͜o̸͎͉͖̒ć̴̙̃̊h̴̨̼͐͌͘!] but I really enjoyed this one. I’ll be keeping this one for special occasions, friends with refined palates, and for whenever I feel like being teleported to a small fire upon the rocks by the ocean at dusk.