Review #107: Images of Islay "McArthur's Head Lighthouse", NAS, 53.2% abv, Malts of Scotland, 236 bottles

let's call this Caol Ila

Caol Ila is on the Sound of Islay and so is McArthur's Head Lighthouse, albeit at the southern end. Still, CI is the closest distillery, and I imagine the view of Jura is pretty similar, so Caol Ila should be a pretty safe assumption.

Wow, this stuff is clear like water. Well, maybe it has a little color to it, but against my maple desk it looks like young tequila.

Nose: smells like Caol Ila. Lemon, sooty peat, some shellfish, and also some candied sweetness. It smells young without being spirity: there's some ricola herbs, the sootiness is a little aggressive, and maybe there's some burnt plastic that hasn't quite settled down yet.

Palate: soft and lemony for a moment, then like chewing on a peat brick that's still burning. There's a little bit of meatiness to it, but that might just be my mouth.

Finish: eventually -- eventually -- the smoke clears and some sweet oyster brine is left.


Good entertaining stuff, if you like young peat a lot. Keeps its distillery character, too.

score: 84

Review #80: Images of Islay "Kildalton Cross," Malts of Scotland, 53.2%, 195 bottles

out of practice

I've been sidelined with a cold, but I think everything tastes normal again. It probably isn't a good idea to start with something mysterious, but here is something from Malts of Scotland's "Images" series. This one must be an Ardbeg, unless it isn't. That would make it my only indy Ardbeg, unless it's not. It's NAS.

A big whiff of salted butter and toffee, and then the blast of dark smoky peat. It does smell like young Ardbeg -- somehow green and spirity, but then tarry and really really briny peat. Not particularly medicinal. The faintest traces of grapefruit and oysters and some linseed oil and wet wool. Sterno.

Palate is salty and tarry and surprisingly hot -- this is young. Finish is extremely long and ashy. Some sweetness comes through, but then gets confused and leaves because it feels like a coal fire has been put out on my tongue. Charred wet dog at the end. A terrier if I had to guess.


There have been bunches of really young peat monsters out recently. This is one of them, but not one of the most successful. It's good, but neither balanced nor outrageously bold. Mostly coal-fired dog.


score: 83

Review #34: Glen Scotia 1992/2010, Malts of Scotland, 53.3%, sherry butt, cask #429, 199 bottles

the other Campbeltown. no, not that one, the other one.

The new packaging is hilarious. It's supposed to be, right? But this isn't an official bottling; it's an MoS
from a sherry butt. Could be good!

Nose is grassy first, leaning toward hay, then some dried fruit and a lot of soot come in. There are a lot of medicinal notes -- cough syrup and antiseptic and aspirin -- which are mostly pleasant. It opens up after a while with some meaty/gamy notes, albeit faint ones. There's a strange sweet note -- like a combination of molasses and rubber tires. Slightest hint of cherries. I find this all interesting and promising, but I'm not sure it'll pay off.

Sweet smoldering rubber tires. Very weird. It's interesting, but not particularly pleasant. The rubber really lingers, too. I'm surprised at how dirty/sooty it is, and it doesn't really have the fruit (or much else) to stand up to all that. Some maltiness and a little generic sherry nutty sweetness comes in at the end, but it's hard to figure out how to score this. I'll have to make something up.

score: 79

edit: score lowered. the more I drank it, the less I liked it.

Review #21: Port Charlotte 2001/2013, 57.5%, Malts of Scotland, Rioja Hogshead, C# MoS13027, 358 bottles

yet another indication that I'm getting old

This is an almost 12 year old Port Charlotte -- hard to believe that there is such a thing. "Rioja hogshead" seems like a bad idea, but they probably know better than I do.

Very nice salty, greasy, and tarry nose, with some fruit in the background. I really don't know how a nose can be salty, but it's somewhere between seawater and pickled something -- plums, I think. The grease seemed a little mechanical at first, but then veers into pork belly territory. Some bicycle tire and ashes. Plus some cherries -- sour cherries smoked over the flames of a pig riding a bicycle. Some other fruit trying to poke through, but the tarry flaming bicycle pig stops them. Palate is rich and oily, with some green fruit, wet rocks, and interesting barrel spices coming in on top of everything else. Super ashy finish, balanced by sweet and salty red fruit. Very very long.

It's hard to imagine a young whisky being much better than this. I'll have to start drinking some crap so that my scores don't seem so high. (Or not.) Maybe these flavors got me in just the right mood, but they're awfully good right now.

score: 90