Caol Ila 22yo b.2019 (58.4%, OB Special Festival Edition Feis Ile 2019, Sherry-Treated American Oak Casks, 3000b, b#2977): nose: well, well, it has a mix of crushed seashells, caster sugar and ashes with a splash of sea water. What a surprise... not! Follow stranded jellyfish and snorkelling gear stored in a (blue) plastic crate in a basement. The plastic takes off too! It does not turn fully petrolic, but it does have loads of petroleum derivatives. One could say it shows a sandy beach littered with drift plastic. The second nose is more earthy -- dark earth from a fertile field, or clay from a musty cellar. Soon, derelict gardening tools rust in silence, covered in decades-old nuggets of mud. We catch a comforting heat behind it all, reminiscent of a boiler in that cellar. Mouth: softly salty, bigly sugary, albeit not sickly. It really is ashes and caster sugar, augmented with a pinch of salt and a dusting of chilli powder. Chewing slaps some mud onto all that, then melted chocolate, crunchy green chilli and lime zest. We also have petrol set alight and a pair of iridescent seashells. Woah! The second sip kicks just as hard. The heat carries delicate fruits, though they are difficult to decipher. Dark cherries? Blackberries? The former, in all likelihood, mixed with blackcurrants, both half smoked. There are embers and ashes from a cherry-tree fire too, now, and that becomes more and more prominent. Finish: huge, it dishes out petrol-coated seashells, ashes, caster sugar, maybe cut pears. It got rid of the plastic, at some earlier stage, to only retain petrol. Tarry sands, 98-octan petrol at the pump -- jerry cans of the stuff. Now, here is a soft impression of sticky toffee pudding, torched to a crisp on the outside, rubbery on the inside. It is kept in an opaque, dark-coloured plastic tub, which we identify via retro-nasal olfaction. Once out of the tub, the pudding is served with a scoop of dark-chocolate ice cream. The second gulp brings a similar fruitiness to the palate's: dark cherries, blackcurrants, cherry-tree-wood on fire. It is very fruity, truth be told. Behind that smoke and that heat, it would be rather easy to miss those fruits, however. Seashells make a late comeback, doused in petrol. Water (casually added to deglaze the glass) brings out fishing nets, still drenched from a recent sortie, and stowed in a plastic crate before being fully dry. Perhaps my score is a tad generous, but this is impressive. 9/10 (Thanks for the sample, Gaija)
Lagavulin 19yo 1995/2014 (54.7%, OB bottled especially to celebrate Fèis Ìle 2014, European Oak Sherry Butts, 3500b, b#0837): nose: this one smells tame and distant, by comparison -- words that are not often used to describe a Lagavulin, one assumes. We find a wooden table, oiled several weeks ago, empty cardboard boxes used to carry pastry home (said pastry was eaten more than a day ago). That is followed by something more concentrated, something that comes out of a tube, perhaps Tubble Gum. Then, at last, fires becomes fleetingly apparent. Pungent smoke, (heady) dried rosemary, honey, flour and confectionary sugar so hot they may just ignite and self combust. The second nose has wood dust from a lichen-covered decking in a place that does not see a lot of rain. Hardened chocolate truffles are next, in which the outer cocoa layer is louder than the once-gooey core. Mouth: ow! this is vegetal and vegetative. Empty vases, dried algae, stagnant water, dried fern, dried mint stems. Chewing doubles down on the mint, even if it is far from the concentration of After Eight (phew!) Then, we have dried sphagnum moss, tree-bark shavings, smoked leaves of some kind, smoked dried sausage rich in fennel seeds. The second sip is bitterer. It presents a mix of cocoa powder and powdered leaves (mint, sage, citrus foliage) and ground spices (liquorice, nigella seeds, black cumin). One might detect super-dry unripe berries (cranberries?), just before empty vases come in the spotlight again. Finish: timid in the drop, it blows up upon hitting the stomach. Sugar, honey, candied angelica all cloaked in smoke that comes from burning herbs, thyme being the one that stands out. It is long and appeasing a finish, slightly acrid (all that smoke, you understand), yet it feels tame compared to today's first dram. The second gulp is a spoonful of honey blended with a drop of petrol, topped with a pinch of gunpowder tea and sage leaves. Only via retro-nasal olfaction do we meet empty vases again, with their dried algae and lichen. To join them, this pushes mentholated-tobacco ashes too. 8/10 (Thanks for the sample, Gaija)