Caol Ila 1983-2003 - 20 Year Old - SMWS 53.62 - Wooden Hospitals

Founded in 1846, Caol Ila distillery was taken over by Diageo forerunner DCL in 1927. The distillery was completely rebuilt in 1972-74 and now produces over 6 million litres annually, much of which goes into Johnnie Walker. The widespread belief that Caol Ila is Islay’s most underrated distillery has become a truth so universally acknowledged that it may no longer be true, though it remains in the shadow of Bowmore and the south coast distilleries. 

Official Caol Ilas were bottled sporadically before Diageo relaunched it as a single malt brand in 2002. A famous yellow label 12-year-old and a rare 15-year-old occasionally appeared under DCL’s Bulloch & Lade subsidiary from the 1960s onwards, and there was a short-lived Flora & Fauna 15-year-old in the late 1980s and a magnificent sherried 15-year-old Manager’s Dram bottled in 1990. Independent Caol Ila is abundant and always great value.

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) began in late 1970s Edinburgh when founder Pip Hills persuaded a group of friends to chip in for a cask of Glenfarclas, and was officially formalised in 1983. Today the SMWS has two venues in Edinburgh, a London bar and a string of international partnerships serving its 35,000 members. 

The Society’s whiskies are known for their unique SMWS coding system. Each cask bottled is assigned two numbers, representing the distillery and the bottling number, so 1.45 is the forty-fifth cask bottled from the first distillery and 33.27 is the 27th cask from the 33rd distillery.

Glenmorangie bought the Society in 2004, but sold it in 2015 to a private consortium who floated the SMWS on the stock market in 2021 via their holding company Artisanal Spirits Co.