
June 8, 2026

The Time Warp Sessions,
today two Caol Ila 1983s bottled 30 years apart

Which effectively gives us a 12-year-old versus a 42-year-old from the same vintage. Interesting, isn’t it? Quite surprisingly, the alcohol strengths are similar. One might also speculate that production in 1983 was fairly substantial, given that the owners had closed both Port Ellen and Brora in the spring of that same year. But that is purely conjecture on my part… Incidentally, it goes without saying that we are dealing here with the “new” Caol Ila, the original distillery having been demolished and rebuilt some ten years earlier.

This moving gravestone was erected in 1935 by the wife and daughter of Peter Dewar, former manager of Caol Ila. It is located in the cemetery of the Round Church in Bowmore (WF Archive)

Caol Ila 1983/1996 (59.6%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, #53.15)

Colour: pale gold. Nose: this is rather hot, rather brutal, more tarry than more recent Caol Ilas, and you'll forgive me for saying that it brings Port Ellen a little to mind. Or perhaps a marriage of Port Ellen and Lagavulin. Brand-new rubber boots, clams, grapefruit peel, fresh tarmac, and a faint touch of smoked salmon. Very smoky indeed. With water: imagine unwrapping the brand-new diving suit you've just bought. Or perhaps a latex suit, although we rather lack experience in that particular field. Mouth (neat): tremendous power, with more sweetness than the nose had suggested (Corsican citron liqueur), once again that tarry edge, together with a combination of cough syrup and pepper liqueur. Metté, here in Alsace, produces a Sichuan pepper eau-de-vie, I really ought to try it one of these days. In short, this is excellent, and it does bring to mind the young CIs from G&M's CASK series. With water: very little change, except that the grapefruits and lemons become rather more talkative. Finish: long, a little more austere, almost rasping, yet we surrender to it with great pleasure. Comments: I do not have the impression that thirty years in bottle have altered this rather magnificent young baby very much, remarkably peaty for a Caol Ila.
SGP:567 - 90 points.

Caol Ila 42 yo 1983/2026 (56.4%, OB, Rare Series, refill American oak hogshead and European oak puncheons, 318 bottles)

What happened in that European oak puncheon was a period of marrying several casks together, although I'm not entirely sure how long that marriage lasted. Then again, whiskies never get divorced, do they? In any case, here comes another member of Diageo's new ‘Rare Series’ via Justerini & Brooks, while we're only just recovering from last week's utterly superlative Clynelish 42/1983 (WF 93). Colour: gold. Nose: no need to say, we cannot really know what stems from the puncheon and what comes from forty-two years in ‘regular’ wood, but here is another perfect example of a whisky that was heavily peated in its youth (proof just above) whose peat has transmuted into fruit, chiefly exotic fruit, much in the manner of the famous Bowmores and Laphroaigs of the 1950s and 1960s. Long story short, mangoes and passion fruits have begun to seize power, with little bananas serving as senior officers. Yet the peaty and coastal elements remain and, if I may say so, provide the infantry. Together they form a remarkably efficient army. Oh, and eucalyptus and mint provide the drones. With water: polishes, waxed papers, old parchments, ancient books... One could almost imagine oneself in the Vatican Library, or at least in one's imagination of it. Mouth (neat): sublime, poised between all worlds, exotic fruits, shellfish, seaweed, every imaginable derivative of petroleum and rubber tree sap, while a gentle honeyed and peppery touch wraps the whole composition together. The puncheon? With water: back to the origins, pure peat, pepper, citrus fruits, oysters, seawater, antiseptic... How amusing, water behaves rather like an elastic band here, in a sense. Or perhaps it simply erases the influence of that famous puncheon? Finish: long, purer still, almost simple, though in the finest possible sense of the word. Comments: it could hardly reach the heights of the Clynelish, yet it comes remarkably close.
SGP:566 - 92 points.

Needless to say, a cross-generational vatting of the two companions in your glass works wonderfully well. We raised a glass to Peter Dewar’s memory!

Check the index of all Caol Ila we've tasted

The Time Warp Sessions, today two Caol Ila 1983s bottled 30 years apart

The Time Warp Sessions,
today two Caol Ila 1983s bottled 30 years apart