Side by side : Independent Caol Ila

Caol Ila is Diageo's mega distillery on Islay, it's capable of producing in excess of 7 million litres of whisky a year! Some of it is bottled as a single malt, some goes into blends and some casks find their way into the hands of independent bottlers.

What I have here are 4 independent bottlings, lets see how they compare.

Caol Ila has founded in 1846 and completely rebuilt in 1879 and 1972, while it's not the prettiest distillery in the world it does produce some good peated and unpeated malt.

So which Independent Bottlers are we trying today?

Signatory Vintage is owned by the same brothers who own Edradour distillery Andrew and Brian Symington, they founded the company in 1988 to sell bottles of casks they'd acquired from other distilleries.	Morrison and MacKay is a  family-owned independent bottler originally founded in 1982 but now owned and run by former Morrison Bowmore directors Kenny MacKay and ex-Morrison Bowmore chairman Brian Morrison.	Elixir Distillers is owned by The Whisky Exchange's brothers Sukhinder and Rajbir Singh. Founded in 2002.	Chorlton Whisky is owned by David Bennett. He specialises in single cask releases from distilleries around the world. Founded in 2016

Let's see how their whiskies taste:

Dram	2009 (8yo) Signatory Vintage	2010 (8yo) Morrison and MacKay	2011 (8yo) Elixir Distillers	2012 (7yo) Chorlton Whisky
Characteristics	46% ABV NCF, Non-coloured Bourbon Hogsheads D:22 Oct '09, Casks 319397 & 319403, B:31 May '18	61.2% ABV NCF, Non-coloured Sherry Butt D: Aug '10, Cask 314212, B: Jun '19 Bottled for Gauntleys of Nottingham	61.6% ABV NCF, Non-coloured Bourbon Hogshead D: '11, B: '19	58.2% ABV NCF, Non-coloured Bourbon Hogshead D: '12, B: '19 Bottled as Bealach Ruadh
Distillery notes	NOSE: Peppery crackers and bonfires on the beach. A hint of peanut butter on toast TASTE: Milky tea, soft smoke and dried mango. Some vanilla-y influence in the background FINISH: Lingering filo pastry and coastal air notes	A pungent, youthful, oily, tarry, peaty nose with ash, mint, medicinal herbs, black pepper and a touch of rose petal (just to remind you that it's a young 'un!) Beneath lies a good weight of sweet-ish banana, apricot and barley. Subtly oaked and subtly salty. The palate is youthful but rounded with earthier peat, tar, sweet barley and white fruit to begin with. Subtly oaked and lightly salted middle with developing iodine and medicinal peat. Intense, mouth-watering finish, but the alcohol is actually pretty well contained. Exits with a rock salt, rose petal and subtle coffee'd notes.	A fresh, peaty whisky, it has aromas of crisp bonfire smoke, sea air, seaweed and grilled lime, with a rich backbone of peat. The palate offers notes of lavender, incense, citrus, clean smoke and spicy black pepper.	An amazing balance of peat smoke, maritime notes and toffee apple sweetness. It also has a really appealing coastal freshness, with herbs and pine forest, and a long smoky-sweet finish
My thoughts:
Appearance
	Pale gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line and fall as slow thick legs.	Pale gold in the glass, swirls cling as a hairline crack, takes time to bead up and fall as slow thin legs	Mid gold in the glass, swirls cling as a hairline crack, takes time to bead up and fall as slow thin legs	Pale gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line and fall as slow thick legs.
Nose	Gentle smoke, a maritime breeze and a hint of citrus.	Rubbery smokey notes with a little salt and a dried banana note.	Again smoke and sea breeze, orchard fruit and a hint of citrus.	Again smoke and sea breeze, much more orchard fruit on this one
Palate	Smooth slightly spicy arrival,  smokey bacon crisps, the citrus from the nose and some tropical fruit. There's a nice bite of peppery spice.	Thick syrupy arrival, quite sweet with orchard fruit and a blanket of smoke.There's a big salt note on this one along with some citrus - not much in the way of spice. Sherry cask matured but there just isn't any sherry notes here.	Thick sweet arrival, smoky citrus and a bite of peppery spice. The ABV is just not showing itself on this dram at all - seem 46% - very drinkable.	Smooth sweet arrival, similar to the Elixir but more smoky. There's a nice peppery spice which leaves a fizz on the tongue. A few more sips offers orchard fruit and sour citrus notes - Yummy!
Finish	Long lingering smoke with a citrus note - Nice!	Again long lingering smoke, some citrus and a peppery spice. Nice!	Again long lingering smoke but with more spice than the previous two.	More lingering smoke with a huge bite of spice. There's a little vanilla on this one too.
Overall	These four drams are all around the same age - young Caol Ila's but all with slightly different profiles. Three were ex-bourbon and one Sherry Butt matured but to be honest there wasn't any difference between them. They all shared a sweet smoky maritime breeze note - bonfire on a beach - which I associate with Caol Ila, there's usually some citrus and a peppery spice too and all of these drams again shared that profile. But as you can see from my notes above they did vary in their intensities. As I mentioned in my recent Staoisha post, I think young, higher ABV, smoky Islay drams work well and most of these fit into that category. Of the four I'd go with the Chorlton but you won't be disappointed in any of them.

Many thanks to @BlackCountryWS and @WhiskyNibs for 2 of the samples!