Caol Ila Feis Ile Day!
I thought deeply about what I wanted to say about Caol Ila before posting anything, and I still feel quite unsure about how my mixed feelings about Caol Ila will pan out in this blog post.
Part of this is about the day itself while the other aspects related to Caol Ila brand choices. As an expert in branding I really question some of the decisions that Caol Ila is making. Let’s start there.
Caol Ila randomly decided to change the price of their 18 year old about a year or so ago. I recall going to a tasting where we unpacked the blend that is Johnnie Walker Blue. When chatting to everyone about the change in price from £90 to £200!! YES that change, I asked what motivated this brand decision. It’s a HUGE change and as a brand, brands should never make huge changes like this. There is a threshold known as the Just Noticeable Difference, where small changes go unseen but big changes aren’t just attention-grabbing, they cause consumers to react negatively because it’s a threat to consumers’ resources and freedom to act. A lot of customers stockpiled the bottles at the lower price point the day before the price change- the result of threats to behavioural freedom. While the answer I received from the workers running the tasting blamed rising costs associated with production, scarcity of peat, increased demand, and so forth, I think they missed the branding point. What does this say about the brand???
Our New Bottle
There are several reasons that these and other recent branding choices make zero sense for Caol Ila. First, 95% of Caol Ila goes into making blends, like Johnnie Walker. Not that the whiskies that go into making blends are bad… they are really nice! I also agree that Caol Ila is a nice whisky. But, Caol Ila is being treated as Johnnie Walker’s work horse. Second, Caol Ila is the largest producer of whisky on Islay. So, it’s not rare. They produce 6.5 million liters of alcohol per year (20M bottles). As a comparison, Lagavulin produces about 1.4 million litres per year whereas Kilchoman has a cap of 480,000 litres per year. This brings me to my third point, which relates to Lagavulin. Both brands are entirely different, yet they have very similar branding strategies in terms of pricing, experiences, and so forth. This might mean that people will say- What makes Caol Ila special?
For our friends the Doctor and Bunny, Caol Ila was their least favourite day. At the tip of the island and the day running on a Monday (meaning buses are less frequent), people have to spend considerable effort to reach Caol Ila. Last year, people were upset because the free drams (yes, you get 2 free drams with allocated tokens) were the moch and the 12 year old. This was unfortunate given that people make the journey to Caol Ila and you want to try the feis bottling (not just by paying for it). This year was a bit better in that last year’s feis bottling was part of the free drams. So, I will give them a high five for that!!
While weather was a bit dreary to start the feis day, the view is perfect!!
The daily activities were very similar to last year’s- a game or two, live music, food trucks, and a bar downstairs. Aside from the feis bottle, there was a not a secret bottle to buy like there was last year. The visitor centre seemed a bit quiet this year, at least in the morning. We did run into the same lovely people from the Diageo team from Lagavulin at Caol Ila Day. I have to say that the people really make the experience and they did a lovely job!! They also seemed to have a lot of fun on the day, and you can tell if people fake it or not. Each of them truly enjoyed their job.
Oh huge TIP, if you want a driver’s dram rather than to drink the free drams from your glass, do take your own. We packed about 20 with us and we were glad that we did!! Also, take labels so that you know what the minis are.
So should you go to Caol Ila day? What should you do on the day? I would honestly encourage newcomers to whisky to try Caol Ila on a day that isn’t their own. The new visitors centre is amazingly beautiful and you will get a more traditional tour on other days, where I’ve read that they do an amazing job at storytelling. If it’s anything like the Journey of Flavours tour at JW in Edinburgh, my jaw would drop. But I haven’t experienced it. On the day, once again, the experiences are quite similar to Lagavulin (with some exceptions). They offer a boat trip and this is something I’ve always wanted to do, and I hear that at times you can see dolphins and otters. It’s a pristine, beautiful location that really plays to the distillery’s points of difference. On top of this, I noticed that they were selling a tasting related to artwork. I know of a few people who would have appreciated this, but we didn’t opt for this experience. Maybe next year. Though, can I not say it enough that Caol Ila should play to their differences? They have a good whisky, so the branding really needs to show how they are different from the other Diageo distilleries, leveraging what they do well.
While I’ve been critical of Caol Ila so far, I do have some positive points to make. It was absolutely lovely to meet new distillery manager Eva Cumming! Hailing from the Sheltands, she has worked in the whisky and hospitality industry for a substantial amount of time, including the Craigellachie Hotel. When the opportunity arose for distillery manager, Eva took charge and set things in motion to make it happen! You go, girl! During the Meet the New Manager experience on Caol Ila day, Colin Dunn ran a Q&A session with Eva, where she talked about her experiences (very shyly) and her love for Caol Ila. Her favourite Caol Ila is the 25 year old. For this tasting, she selected our last dram (A 1996 Cask- chosen as this was her birth year). It’s great to see another woman in the industry. I really hope to see Eva have a solid foot in the brand! It was a very interesting Q&A session, as Colin had a cheeky air of Quagmire about him.
We opened with the feis 2024 bottle, doing the same 13-seconds where we held the dram in our mouths and closed our eyes (to prepare us to taste whisky). I recall last year being disappointed by the older drams as the essence of Caol Ila kind of ‘peated out’ (pun intended) with age. This year’s drams were quite nicely selected and there was only one that was a bit disappointing. This was their handfill “Fill Your Own Bottle” priced around £150, which was a 1st fill bourbon cask. They get a lot of their bourbon barrels from Buffalo Trace (so they said during the Q&A), so I was not surprised when typical bourbon character came through. Tasting notes at the end.
While we didn’t buy the Feis bottle, we did take home a Distillery exclusive bottle. To me, it was the same quality as the Feis bottle but a much more reasonable price! Bottled at cask strength (57.4%), this limited edition of 6,000 bottles were made from a combination of refill, first-fill Kentucky Bourbon, and first-fill specially-charred California red wine casks. On recall, I think that this was about £100 give or take.
Who do I think would enjoy this experience? People who really enjoy Caol Ila and whisky lovers who like to try things that are a bit different and perhaps rare. The Doctor and Bunny liked it, but this was not a highlight of their week. I think they might have enjoyed the Whisky on the Waves, Whisky and Chocolate tasting, or the Whisky and Art Conversation.
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Finished in ex-ruby Port French oak casks (sourced from Portugal’s Douro Valley). Retailing at £185, it has an ABV of 54.5%
The noseis a mix of sweet butterscotch, light kelp (you can definitely tell it’s coastal), and sweet smoke. This is a typical Caol Ila sweet peat. While there are some funky notes like moss, it’s quote sweet overall like red apples, orange blossom, and then you end up with some baked goods like baked cherry pie.
On the palate, you get sweet peat straight away, followed by some savoury notes like tarragon or sage and roasted honeyed carrots. A bit of saltiness peaks through. Then it finishes quite sweetly- with strawberry jam, apricots, and cinnamon. The cinnamon makes it a typical Caol Ila in my book.n text goes here
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Drawn from Refill American Bourbon barrels and has an ABV of 55.9%. Bottled in 2015, it sold for £145 at that time. According to Royal Mile Whiskies, most unpeated Caol Ila is used for blends, and unpeated batches made only once a year, making unpeated expressions quite rare.
The nose is quite interesting, and offers a bit of sweet and savoury if you can imagine blackberries (sweet, but tart) mixed with sage. Then, notes of melon emerge with sweetness of honeydew melons and canteloupe (traditional melons). There is also a bit of watermelon rind (the rind, when it becomes ripe) followed by bits of shortbread. Finally, you smell the typical aspects of Caol Ila: nutmeg and cinnamon spice.
The palate also comes through very similarly. you get sweet straight off like strawberry shortcake but there is also a bit of tartness like brambles and even sweet grapefruit. There are notes of coconut flan or pie on the finish, ending in curry with raisins.
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43% part of the core range, with bottles priced at £445
The nose gives off notes of petrol, salty seaweed, cinnamon (of course), strawberry fruit leather (fruit roll-up), lemon furniture polish (according to S), and a very light honey like wildflower honey on the end.
On the palate, the smoke grows very softly over notes of honey and pear drops. Then, you get a bit of fruitiness from green apples and orange zest. Soon afterward, there are dried pineapples and papayas (almost like a trail mix), followed by ginger with a peppery (black pepper) finish.ext goes here
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55.1% 1st Fill Bourbon Cask, taken straight from the cask at 10 years old within the visitors centre. From my memory (as I didn’t write it down), each bottle sold for about £150.
On the nose I immediately found green (unripe) bananas, oatcakes, and nutmeg. There was also a bit of curry power followed by mangos and green apples. Finally, some raisins and vanilla shortbread rounded out the nose.
On the palate, there were chocolately and gingery spice aspects, especially the texture of dark chocolate. The lemonade and honey notes came out effortlessly. In fact I would say it reminds me of a chamomile tea with a bit of honey. Oddly enough, the finish really changed how I experienced the dram. While there was a bit of mint, when digging deeper into the dram, I found After 8 mint (Andes mint).
I mentioned earlier that I didn’t care for this one and I didn’t really. I think part of it was that it wasn’t worth the price and the other part was that it was a bit of an odd dram.m description
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56.1%. This cask was chosen specifically by Eva and while it was a sherry cask somewhere in the warehouse, there wasn’t a specific type relayed. While I’m guessing it’s PX (based on colour, based on nose and taste), this was not confirmed. As this was taken from the cask, there was no price, but I can say it was a jewel!
The nose reminded me of suntan lotion (in your face coconut) and furniture polish wax from the wood. Then, I got notes of BBQ, cinnamon, and I’ll call them drunk raisins. The drunk raisins I would say is very rich, juicy raisin that has been soaked in rum before you put them in a bake. There was a bit of chipotle spice that came through and this ended with smoked cashews.
On the palate, I was immediately taken to chili powder (that chipotle spice I mentioned), bacon, powered peanut butter (S bought some recently), treacle (molasses). Suddenly, it became pecan pie! While delicate and sweet, there was also an underlying bitterness like Manuka honey.
With this dram we were also given a bit of choclate and we were encouraged to let it melt in our mouths and then sip our dram. YUMM. The sweet cinnamon (and still molasses/treacle) really came through.cription