Origin: Isle of Islay (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Gradation: 59.8%
Ageing cask: Ex-Bourbon
Chillfiltered: No
Added coloring: No
Owner: A&G Selection
Average price: € 99.00
Official website: www.whiskyshop.it
Vote: 86/100
Who, in Italy and not only, doesn’t know the Milano Whisky Festival?
An event that has grown exponentially in its 14 editions, acting as an essential meeting point for enthusiasts, distilleries, independent bottlers and distributors, offering the opportunity to try all (or almost all) the knowledge of this distillate in its worldwide declinations.
And this undoubted success is due to the passion and self-sacrifice of its two founders, Andrea Giannone and Giuseppe Gervasio Dolci, who not only had the intuition but also the ability to cope with an ever-increasing number of visitors each year.
And their passion can be found in their shop, which you can find the link to above, one of the few in Italy to offer whisky and rum tasting kits, to allow everyone to try bottles at prices that are not exactly a bargain.
And not content with that, the dynamic duo thought (I’d say almost inevitably) of creating their own bottlings, with the A&G Selection: single casks carefully chosen from various distilleries, even those that aren’t very popular, to break the mould a little.
In this case, it’s a cask filled in 2008, which after ten years has produced 224 cask strength bottles still available.
Tasting notes
Straw yellow in the glass.
Very marine on the nose, you close your eyes and almost believe you are on the ocean shore. The peat is a polite presence, meaty and herbaceous but without overdoing it, tamed by a sweet and fruity profile of vanilla and ripe banana. And… mushrooms?
On the palate, the embers have been stirred and bring the ashy component back to the forefront, without neglecting that sweet and (almost) delicate aspect found on the nose that not even the considerable alcohol content manages to break. Alongside the herbaceous and smoky peat, in a peculiar balance given the youth of the whisky, we find vanilla, yellow fruit and Ovaltine. Pepper. Oily and full, without edges.
The finish is long, of ashtray used with malt and dried fruit.
A young but unexpectedly rich malt, not at all banal and capable of entertaining.
Reviews of Caol Ila whisky in the blog
Reviews A&G Rare Cask Selection whisky in the blog:
A&G Rare Cask Selection Dufftown 11yo
A&G Rare Cask Selection Glenburgie 15yo
A&G Rare Cask Selection Royal Brackla 11yo