Scotland, Islay: Single malt whisky through the producing distilleries: history, making, production and tasting notes
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Caol Ila

Tasting notes Distillery pictures

The distillery


Caol Ila Distillery
Port Askaig
Islay - Argyll PA46 7RL
+44 1496 840 207
Owner: United Distillers & Vintners (Diageo)
Creation date1846

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The Caol Ila distillery was build by Hector Henderson in 1846. At this time, Henderson was also the owner of the Littlemill Lowland distillery.
Before the construction of a distillery, the place was used for washing lead ore.
In 1863, Hector Henderson sold his distillery to Bulloch Lade, owner of the Loch Catrine distillery in Glasgow.
The pier was built in those times, in order to facilitate ship transport of coal and barley to the distillery, and whisky casks from the distillery.
In 1927, the distillery was bought by D.C.L. (Distillers Company Ltd.) who rebuilt it in 1974. The new very functional distillery produces three times more whisky since their reconstruction;
Like most of the distilleries, it was closed during the war years.
The Clynelish distillery in Brora is an exact replica of Caol Ila.
Most of the production is used in blends (90%) like Bell's, White Horse, Scottish Leader, Johnnie Walker and Black Bottle.
The distillery is the greatest of Islay, and produces about 3.000.000 litres a year. The capacity of the wash stills is 20.000 litres , and 14.000 litres for the spirit stills.

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The whisky

The sites below offer tasting notes for this distillery. Please click on the logo to access this notes.

France whisky-distilleries www.whisky-distilleries.info
Passionnés du malt passionnesdumalt.free.fr
Comaw Club o. mosellan des amateurs de whisky
Single Malt Passion Single Malt Passion by Laphroaig43
English whisky-distilleries www.whisky-distilleries.info
Whiskyfun www.whisky-fun.com
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Geography

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Islay

Islay Map

The Isle of Islay on the West coast, is by far the most appreciated producing area amongst the single malt lovers. Even if its surface is rather small, there are no less than 8 active distilleries, including a new one.

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Click on the map for a list of the distilleries of the area, on the title for further information
about the Islay area, and if you want to make an "alphabetical journey" through the area, please
click on one of the pagode roofs, according to the direction you want to follow

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Photos of the distillery

  Visiting the Caol Ila distillery is one of the great moments in the life of a tourist on Islay. The visit is led by a former worker of the distillery, who currently is retired after having worked for 30 years at the distillery, really a fount of knowledge. What a pleasure listening to him when he is talking about the way the mashtuns were build, and about the difference between the current working conditions and those in the distillery before it was rebuild in the 1970's.
The plans of the new distillery were drawn by somebody who really knew about the work in a distillery. Everything is done to avoid unnecessary manipulations.
The millions of litres of whisky produced yearly do not demand more than 11 workers. The distillery is highly automated.
There are some very clever mechanisms who really make the life of the workers easier. For instance the yeast is added automatically in the mashtuns, which ensures a good repartition of it with no human effort.
Also the hygiene is a major issue. Cleaning systems of the mashtuns and all the pipings are also installed.
The greatest part of the production is matured outside the distillery. Tankers come and take the spirit and bring it to the central aging centres of UDV. There are however some maturing warehouses in the distillery, where the single malts are matured locally.
The plans of the distillery were so good, that UDV decided to use them to build the new Clynelish distillery in Brora. However Clynelish is a mirror image of Caol Ila.
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Photos Tony TTN

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