Caol Ila 40 Year Old Cadenhead's / London Shop

Wm. Cadenhead is Scotland’s oldest independent bottler, founded in 1842 by George Duncan. His brother William Cadenhead joined the company in 1952, taking over after George’s death in 1958. The company got into the whisky bottling business after 1904, when his nephew Robert Duthie took over, and since its sale to J&A Mitchell in 1972, Wm. Cadenhead has become on of the most sought after names in whisky. Its Authentic Collection is the flagship brand, but the portfolio of the company has expanded in recent years with labels like this.

This 40 year old Caol Ila single malt is part of the annual Cadenhead's Shop releases, with each of the company's store-fronts featured on the front of a special bottling each year. This bottling for the Cadenhead's Whisky Shop in London.

Caol Ila distillery was built in 1846 by Hector Henderson, who was bought out from the venture a little over 10 year later by Bulloch Lade. The blending firm merged with DCL (now Diageo) in 1927, who still run the distillery today. In 1972 the original site was demolished and replaced by a new one. When distilling resumed in 1974, Caol Ila was the largest producer of single malt on the Isle of Islay. Despite this, due to its importance in popular blends such as Johnnie Walker, its single malt brand disappeared under United Distillers, and it was not until 2002 that it would return, when the 12 year old was revived by Diageo. The Flora & Fauna release was well-regarded in the meantime, but it was independent releases like this that gave the best opportunity to sample this much-loved single malt.