Caol Ila 33, Edition 3, Hunter Laing The Kinship, 190/482, 52.6% abv.

The Kinship series was started and selected by Jim McEwan to celebrate the construction of Hunter Laing's Ardnahoe distillery. Ardnahoe was a big thing because it was another "new" distillery on Islay with a popular cast of characters. The first releases included Ardbeg 26, Bowmore 25, Bunnahabhain 28, Caol Ila 33, Laphroaig 30, and Port Ellen 34 in 2017.

Nose: sherry notes, light red fruits, prunes, raisins. Tire smoke, tar, notes of caramel and chocolate.

Palate: starts off a little sour, which then becomes sweet, mid palate is light wet old steamed lotus leaves/expired sherry, and then it becomes more sour, back palate is a very light bbq and then becomes mellowed chocolate, caramel, dark fruits.

Finish: short, abv numbness, dull fruit juice. Did I miss something?

The aromas were sherry, but the taste wasn't very sherry in the beginning. I guess because it was a new bottle, a lot of the sensations weren't ready yet. The sherry aspects were quite nice, although very subdued. Finish was basically nothing for the expected level of this dram.

Grade: A-

Whiskyfun.com, Serge, sgp:366, 91 points
Scotchwhisky, Dave Broom, 92 points

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

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