09/06/2022 Caol Ila

53.193 22yo To bring a smile to every face (49.9%, SMWS Society Single Cask, Bourbon Barrel): nose: it is a muddy, swampy Caol, with sponge-y peat bogs in the sun, silt and stagnant ponds. It only takes a short time for sandier, saltier scents to appear, and they wrestle the mud to impose a drought, of course. Hot sands, melted seal wax, a heated metal brand, and a pinch of ash. Funnily enough, it is the wax that takes off, in the long run, meeting (and submerging) cockles or salty whelks. The second nose has even more wax, much to my surprise. It really is seal wax with just a whiff of slowly-drying mud, probably from the pawprints of a wild cat who wandered through a peat bog. Mouth: dense and intense, this packs a punch! It delivers the peaty goods too, with jars of squid ink, tarry ropes, but also graphite dust, hot embers, and wood being turned into charcoal. Chewing on it for a couple of minutes helps maritime notes appear (we have lukewarm sea water and stewed kelp), yet they stay in the background. The second sip sees hot seal wax join the party, not too dissimilar to those paraffin slabs that are used to seal jam inside the jar. There is a generous dose of smoke too, certainly from the fire that heated and melted the seal wax. Burning peat and moss. Finish: a hugely vegetal finish that showcases all sorts of mosses, dry or not, growing on sponge-y peat. Sphagnum moss, Ambuchanania moss, Stirling Moss, Kate Moss, Maurice Moss, Chris Moss Acid, flental moss... It is terribly long too, which means one chews vegetables for a while -- nori, kale, Swiss chard. Repeated sipping shows the vegetables to be marinated in Worcestershire sauce, and sprinkled with Chinese five-spice powder. At the death, that ends in a delicate sweetness. Still, it is very much a veggie number, with vegetables and moss. Pretty good too. In the right circumstances, it should wow enthusiasts of the style. 8/10 (Thanks for the dram, Cavalier66)