Distilled in 1969 at the Caol Ila Distillery the whisky in CBTD REF NO.22 was bottled at 17 years old as part of the icon brown label Connoisseurs Choice series released in the 80s by Gordon and Macphail. This Caol Ila 1969 17 year old is such a rare bottle that we could only see 3 sold at auction in the last 11 years.

The single malt whisky in CBTD REF NO.22 was distilled in a year which saw the US lunar module Apollo 11 land on the Moon and astronaut Neil Armstrong take the first historic steps on the surface, the Eurovision Song Contest end with four joint winners from Spain, the UK, the Netherlands and France, and the Rolling Stones release the classic rock album, Let It Bleed.

ABOUT CAOL ILA DISTILLERY 

Located near Port Askaig on Islay’s eastern coast, Caol Ila was established by Hector Henderson in 1846. The name Caol Ila derives from the Gaelic for the Sound of Islay, the narrow strait between Islay and Jura which the distillery overlooks. In 1857, Henderson sold the distillery to the Glasgow blenders Bulloch Lade who improved the site building a substantial pier. Caol Ila was absorbed into Distillers Company Limited (later Diageo) in 1927, operating until 1972 when the old distillery was demolished and a new larger one was built, increasing the number of stills from two to six and turning Caol Ila into Islay’s largest whisky producer. In the 1970’s the Scotch whisky industry was dominated by blended whiskies, with Caol Ila’s output destined for an array of blends including Johnnie Walker and Black Bottle. A downturn in the whisky market in the 1980’s resulted in a surplus of Caol Ila’s existing peated malt, although the distillery switched to producing an unpeated ‘Highland style’ malt required for blends allowing it to remain open and operational. Despite Caol Ila now being bottled and sold as a single malt, 95 percent of the distillery’s output is still used for blending, and an unpeated expression is now issued as a special release. Caol Ila’s distillery character manages to combine a fresh pear note, grassiness, a hint of juniper with distinctive notes of the seashore, lobster shells and gentle smoke with maturation in refill casks.

ABOUT THE CONNOISSEURS CHOICE RANGE 

This 1969 distilled Caol Ila single malt was aged for 17 years then released by independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail as part of their Connoisseurs Choice range. First created by George Urquhart in 1968, Connoisseurs Choice aimed to showcase small batch examples of single malt in a market focused entirely on blended whiskies. The Connoisseurs Choice range pioneered a new category in the whisky market by selecting, maturing and bottling whisky from distilleries, many of which had never before been bottled as single malt, according to the belief every distillery has a unique personality to collect a range of rare and sought after single malts from some of Scotland’s long established distilleries. The distinctive brown label identifies this bottling as a Connoisseurs Choice release dating from the 1980’s. Distilled at the old Caol Ila distillery before it was demolished and rebuilt, this dram offers the drinker a taste of this cult Islay distillery’s history.