Caol Ila 12 is the sort of bottle that suits almost anyone who reaches for it. It sits in the top 19% of bottles for how broadly it's liked. That is the whole case for it, in one line.
Caol Ila 12 is an Islay single malt with its peat turned down rather than up. The nose runs to fresh fish wrapped in bacon with a squeeze of lemon, cooked at a beach barbecue, floral and allspice notes drifting in behind. The palate is lightly oily and meaty, medium-peated, softly spiced, with pineapple and melon through the middle. Then it dries out: more fruit, and a peppery peat on the way down. Balanced, and easy to be around.
Caol Ila 12 is $99 for members at Dan Murphy's this week. Worked back to the glass, that is about $4.17 a standard drink across the roughly 24 standard drinks in the bottle. A pint at the pub runs about $13, near enough to $6.28 a standard drink. So a pour at home comes in under a pint.
Here is another way to weigh it. Ask the drinkers of the bottles closest to Caol Ila 12 what it's worth to them, each starting from what they pay for their own, and the answers run from $77 to $101. At $99 for members, this week's price sits inside what those drinkers would pay. The reason is in the numbers rather than in any story: every one of those drinkers who shares its flavours puts Caol Ila 12 at nine-tenths or more of their own bottle.
If you want a change, two bottles stand in cleanly.
Bowmore 12 is the closer of the two. To a Caol Ila 12 drinker it gives about 98% of what the Caol Ila 12 does, for 96% of its price. It leans sweeter and rounder than the Caol Ila: tropical fruit and sweet smoke on the nose, a hint of brine and new leather, then peaches, honey and vanilla before the woodsmoke fades. It usually sells around $102, and we've seen it from $95 to $110.
Highland Park 12 pulls the other way, north to Orkney. To a Caol Ila 12 drinker it gives about 94% of what the Caol Ila 12 does, for 91% of its price. Where Caol Ila sits meaty and savoury, Highland Park sits heathery and honeyed, with citrus fruits and a thread of wood smoke running through a long, slightly peaty finish. It's $90 for members this week.
So, who is it for? If Caol Ila 12 is already your bottle, nothing here asks you to move; $99 for members is this week's price, and the glass still costs less than a pint out. If you lean towards sweet and rounded, Bowmore 12 is the one to reach for, and it costs about $4.30 a standard drink. If you would rather heather and honey than peat and smoke, Highland Park 12 is waiting. And if all three are new to you and you simply want a single malt that rarely lands wrong in company, start with the Caol Ila.
None recorded.
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