Spirited News 06/2019: Whic.de Coal Ila 9 Years
The next bottling in Whic.de’s “The War of the Peat” comes from Islay. It might even come as a surprise that this was not the first whisky in the range. – After all, when thinking of smoky whisky, Islay is the first thing that comes to mind! So, let us take a closer look at what is in the small sample bottle.
The first thing you might notice is, that the Coal Ila comes as a vintage bottling. Filled in 2009, the heavily peated whisky is close to ten years old, but not quite. With an age of nine years, it probably kept some youthfull notes. In contrast to the first “The War of the Peat” bottling, this time Signatory only uses ex-bourbon casks for the ageing. The barrel carries the number 319400. The single malt is neither coloured, nor chill-filtered and comes at a heavty cask strength of 56,8 %. The Coal Ila is limited to 338 bottles.
Smoke and Mezcal notes
When you open up the bottle, there instantly is a lot of peat smoke in the aroma of the Coal Ila. However, in the taste the smoke is more subtle. The most interesting thing about the single malt flavour is a Mezcal-like note, which reminds me of apples and pears. Apart from that, you can taste a interesting bonfire and ash note. Finally, in the aftertaste you get the slightest cherry flavour. For a single malt which is younger than ten years, the Coal Ila is rather complex. I enjoyed it very much and can highly recommend it.
*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product.
*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product.
