It’s Caol Ila‘s Open Day today and here’s a review of one of their more unusual whiskies.
The standard expressions are typical of Islay, containing a good balance of sweetness with the punch of peat smoke; Moch is a little different.
Meaning ‘dawn’ in Gaelic, Moch is a lighter expression which has a bit less smoke than the standard 12 year old. It carries no age statement (though is around 8 years old) and is bottled at 43% ABV.
Colour
Pale straw.
Nose
Quite a light nose. A little peat smoke and some salt but also contains a pleasant cream and some soft lemon.
As the whisky opens up, a malty biscuit sweetness appears.
Flavour
Consistent with the nose, the flavour starts with a light oiliness and restrained smoke. Lemon and vanilla cream appears before a slightly TCP tingle leads into a fairly short finish.
The sweetness disappears first, followed by the smoke shortly afterwards.
Adding some water reveals a bit more of the lemon sweetness, but seems to knock it out of balance a bit. Much better neat.
Overall
Caol Ila Moch is a pleasant dram which offers a much more gentle flavour profile than other Islay malts.
It’s not the most complex dram in the world, but feels very well balanced and would be a fantastic introduction to Islay malts for a beginner; peated but not enough to scare them off.
One to look out for, but don’t pay too much for it – I picked this up from the distillery for £35 last year, but I’ve seen it being priced at over £50.
Braw Spirit 