Gordon & MacPhail “Private Collection” Madeira Wood Finish (distilled at Caol Ila), 1998 Vintage, 10 year old, 46%, $70
Bright fruit throughout (red raspberry, strawberry-rhubarb pie, gooseberry, red currant, nectarine), honeyed malt, dark chocolate, tarry rope, seaweed soaked in olive brine, and ground pepper. Tarry finish. Nicely balanced, well-defined flavors, and fully mature at 10 years of age.
Advanced Malt Advocate magazine rating: 87
Gordon & MacPhail “Private Collection” Port Wood Finish (distilled at Caol Ila), 1998 Vintage, 10 year old, 46%, $70
Sweet, viscous, and weighty; much more so than its sister whisky (reviewed above) that was finished in Madeira casks. But the same Caol Ila DNA is here — tar, olive brine, pepper — along with fleshy red fruit and chocolate. Lingering ripe fruit and tar on the finish. Save this one for after dinner, or with a book at bedtime.
Advanced Malt Advocate magazine rating: 85
It’s taken these a while to reach you, considering they were bottled in ’08. I’ve actually seen the Madeira one around and wondered what it was like. It sounds very promising.
these sound interesting, even though the one g&m finished caol ila i’ve had (the 14yo cognac wood finish) didn’t blow me away. priced a little high for non-cs 10yos though.
G&M tends to price a little high on the younger whiskies & a little low on the older….
as i think about it the 14yo cognac wood was not so much more expensive than these. but i don’t know if you’d say a 14yo is an older whisky. perhaps a topic for another day, but i think signatory really offers, far and away, the best values among the indies.
When I say older, I mean ooolder as in 30+. I got a signatory Highland Park 18 46% for 75$. That is a terrific deal. But can get a great G&M c/s 30 something Macallan for 400 something or a wonderful 44 year old Strathisla for 300$. Those are high numbers, but also crazy values.
hmmm duncan taylor has a lot of whiskies in the 30yo+ bracket that cost significantly less than $300-400. and their lower-end whisky galore range offers better value than these younger g&m’s too. of course, it’s not that easy to find whisky galore bottlings in the u.s.
I do see those Whisky Galore values online, mongo, but I live in Massachsetts where its some sort of crime for individuals to order liquor from out of state. The few older D&T bottles I’ve seen haven’t been well priced, but if you say they’re out there, I’m sure they are.
Incidently, another bottler besides signatory that some amazing values across its range is Lombard. Every Lombard bottling I’ve tasted has been up to snuff and many have been great values– particularly check out they’re recently released Smoking Ember anonymous single malt. It’s allegedly a young Laphroaig, but it’s a little ashier and more citric than that might lead one to believe. Excellent and an amazing deal for less than 40$
thanks for the smoking ember tip–i’ll look out for that.
re duncan taylor: i don’t want to hurt the feelings of people in massachusetts but i got a glorious 38yo 1968 caperdonich from binny’s last year for $159. binny’s has others in that general age/ price range from duncan taylor, as do some other retailers (including merwin’s in minneapolis–close to where i live).
I wonder how close these are to the Distiller’s Edition Moscatel finish (which is probably easier to track down)?
Never been a fan of Caol Ila in any expression. Edradour did a Madeira finish a few years back that was near perfection, 12 y/o as I recall
[...] presentation of their new single pot still whiskeys. He does a tasting of the Gordon and MacPhail Private Collection of Caol Ila: Madeira and Moscatel finishes, Kilchoman Spring 2011. He scores a whooping 96 to the [...]