While I was writing today’s post, I went back to a post I wrote almost two years ago. It seems yesterday, time really flies. In my review of the original Caol Ila 12, I wrote that Caol Ila is“…a great gateway dram to dive into independent bottlings [due to] the availability of alternative bottlers of this spirit.” It is a statement which remains valid, in part, as I’ll explain below. Yet it is surprising it has taken me so long to get to this review of the Archives 2010 Caol Ila.
TL:DR: A ripe, fruity Caol Ila with the peat playing the orchestra rather than the soloist.
Score: 7/10, very good stuff
The best laid plans of mice and men…
… often go awry. As Scotland’s National Bard, Rabbie Burns would have said. And so, while I had originally planned to invest in a few Caol Ila IBs, that never materialised. Or maybe not as such. Some of the peated blended malts I reviewed in the past, Elixir’s Elements of Islay Cask Edit, Compass Box’s The Peat Monster, are made up in large part with Caol Ila. I could consider them IBs to some extent. Be as it may, as I mentioned earlier, it has taken me almost two years to get to the only Caol Ila Independent Bottling in my collection.
What happened? There have been rumours for a while that Diageo has been reducing, or even outright stopping, the sale of Caol Ila casks to IBs. Considering the general downturn in whisky sales, I am somewhat dubious. Selling to IBs is great to recoup some profit when there is an overstock of distillate. Even if it were true, we would hardly see that now, but more likely in the future.
So much choice
No, the real reason is that there is so much on offer from Independent bottlers today that, like the proverbial kid in the candy store, I forgot about my Caol Ila exploration plan and chased after brands that I wanted to discover or that excited me more. There has been a flourishing of IBs – and many of the new ones have delivered great stuff. Besides the almost obvious mention of the Thompson Bros, brands like Fragrant Drops, Brave New Spirits, Living Souls, Watt Whisky and more have been delivering a range of distillery bottlings. In some cases from distilleries which in the past had been rather stingy in their work with IBs.
Does that mean I have abandoned my plans to explore IB Caol Ilas? I guess this review of the Archives 2010 Caol Ila might be a good test to decide if I should pick up that resolution again.
Note: I realised as I was about to post this that I haven’t spent a word on Archives, so here goes. Archives is a Dutch Independent Bottler established in 2011 by the team behind Whiskybase.
Archives 2010 Caol Ila 11 years old
Specs
Price paid: €95.50
Bottled date: 18/5/2022
ABV: 56.9%
Natural colour: Yes
Non-chill filtered: Yes
Casks Used: Cask 321701 (single cask, cask strength), first fill Bourbon
Tasting Notes
Colour: Pale old gold, considering this is a first-fill cask, it is either not a super active one or not too heavily charred.
Nose: I immediately get bright sweetness and gentle peat. Honey, lime peel, pear and some peat – woodsmoke with just a touch of seaweed. Immediately behind come notes of petrichor and sea salt. A hit of vanilla, mixed with just a hint of cinnamon and ginger. Baked pastry. A background note of lilac. There is a lovely complexity here.
Adding some water to bring the ABV closer to 46% brings more white fruit forward, still with the main notes that were there pre-dilution. After a while, there is a little peanut shell smell, something I very strongly associate with certain bourbons.
Taste & finish: the mouthfeel is rich and oily, unsurprisingly with some heat from the ABV. The peat is more noticeable on the palate, but more woody. There is sea salt, but very little iodine or medicinal notes. More prominent caramel and pastry notes, even some malted biscuits. There is still a slightly refreshing lime note in the background. Now the spice definitely turns more gingery, with still a good dose of vanilla.
The finish is spicy, ginger, cinnamon and even some white pepper, with caramel, sea salt, lime peel and just a little smoke
Adding a little water makes the palate sweeter and tames down the spices, but at the cost of some richness and complexity.
Score*: 7/10, very good stuff
What do you ideally want from an IB? A good answer could be something still recognisable in character, but with its own little twist. And it would perfectly fit this Archives 2010 Caol Ila in today’s review. It retains the mild Islay peat character from Caol Ila, but it adds a level of richness and complexity you won’t find in the standard 12. Right now, I’d even be tempted to rate it higher, mostly because I haven’t been as excited about heavily peated drams as in the past.
The one thing I am less happy about is the price, but I realise I am seeing this with today’s eyes. Islay IBs often get a little extra price tag, but even accounting for that, this is a bit dear. At the same time, when I bought this, two years ago, the price seemed fair, maybe just a little high. But we were still riding the pandemic-induced hype, even if things were cooling down already.
Signatory Vintage’s 100 Proof series, as well as producers like the Thompson Brothers and more, have shown us that IBs can offer great value at times and fair value in many cases. I probably would hesitate more to pay this price for a similar bottle today, and that, as a consumer, is a good sign… though not as much for the industry, and that is a whole other can of worms
* Scores are based on the scoring scale used by Dramface, slightly modified to allow half-points
After writing my tasting notes, I always find it interesting to look at other opinions. Alas, this time I was not able to find any except Whiskybase.
Interested in my take on a specific whisky style? Check the full Journey here and jump to the relevant Chapter.
If you have enjoyed this content, please share a comment below and consider supporting the cost of this blog via the button below