Caol Ila 2013-2021 - 7 Year Old - North Star Spirits - Cask Series 015 - Single Cask

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.

North Star Spirits is an independent whisky bottling company founded in Glasgow in 2016 by AD Rattray alumnus Iain Croucher. North Star quickly established itself as one of the most popular of the recent wave of Scottish independent whisky bottlers thanks to a prolific series of top class whiskies released in eye-catching packaging at sensible prices. North Star Spirits was named Independent Bottler of the Year at the Scottish Whisky Awards in 2020 and 2021.

Besides their excellent single cask and small batch single malt releases, which are bottled without colouring or chill filtration and are usually at cask strength, North Star have also released several outstanding blended malt and blended Scotch whiskies alongside occasional bottlings of rum, gin, bourbon and Pedro Ximenez fortified wine.