Caol Ila 2008-2021 - 13 Year Old - Alistair Walker Infrequent Flyers - Single Cask 1820

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.

Alistair Walker started in the whisky industry straight out of university in the late 1990s when he worked for several years with his father Billy Walker at Burn Stewart. After returning to university for a Masters degree, Walker rejoined the trade in 2004, again working with Billy Walker, who had purchased Benriach distillery in the meantime. 

Walker remained with Benriach Distillery Company until its purchase by Brown Forman in 2016, and founded The Alistair Walker Whisky Company in 2018. The company has since released several dozen single cask malt and grain whiskies under its Infrequent Flyers label, bottled at cask strength without colouring or chill filtration. Walker is an advocate of cask finishing and a significant proportion of the Infrequent Flyers releases have had a secondary maturation.