Two Beauties For Thanksgiving

Let me present to you the final two casks of Old Particular for 2017, just in time for Thanksgiving! If you want to show up to this year's party and make everyone's night, I suggest you pick up one of these beauties as both are showstopping stunners and, along with the Bowmore, represent the best of what I found in Scotland this past year in terms of both quality and price-to-value. 

Whenever we have the chance to buy fan favorite single malts like Caol Ila for a reasonable price, we're almost always going to jump on that opportunity. With its combination of round, textural and fruity malt flavors and potent peat smoke, the Islay producer has long been a hit with our clientele. We're big fans as well. Caol Ila's wide-necked pot stills allow more of the heavier oils to escape during distillation, creating a richer-tasting spirit on the palate. You get every bit of that classic Caol Ila character in this twenty year old single cask, one that reduced itself naturally to an absolutely perfect 46% ABV!

We got out of the "lost distillery" game years ago, no longer willing to pay the crazy prices for Port Ellen and Brora, but luckily for us there's still not much of a market for grain whisky despite the huge success of brands like the Nikka Coffey Still. We're not complaining, however! We went back and dug out a second cask of 43 year old Garnheath, the long lost facility from Scotland's Lowland region that operated between 1965 and 1986 before closing forever. Considering both the age and the rarity of the whisky, the price is down right ridiculous for something this delicious and exotic, but so long as we keep finding deals like this, we'll keep passing on the savings to you!

1996 Caol Ila 20 Year Old "Old Particular" K&L Exclusive Single Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky $129.99 - Caol Ila's whisky can be as transitive and unpredictable as the Islay weather itself; sometimes it's light and breezy, while other times powerful and thunderous in its character. At cask strength, the salt, smoke, and peat aromas often leap out of the glass, but when tempered the creaminess and fruitiness of the spirit itself is allowed to shine, fat and unctuous in its texture. With this cask of 20 year old Caol Ila, we have the best of both worlds: a full proof, no-water-added single barrel whisky that has naturally proofed itself down to 46% after two decades in wood. The nose is an absolute dream: sweetly-tinged smoke, burning embers, with faint aromas of peach and apricot in the background. The palate is simply perfect: sweet vanilla intermixed with peat, salt, and ash, but always with a roundness of texture that's a product of the distillery's wide-necked pot stills. It's a perfect Caol Ila specimen, highlighting the strengths of the Islay distillery's personality, each with equal concentration and intensity, all in harmony and balance.

1974 Garnheath 43 Year Old "Old Particular" K&L Exclusive Single Barrel Cask Strength Grain Whisky $249.99 - Part two of Garnheath is finally here! Part of our lost whisky collection (meaning distilleries that have since closed and/or been demolished), we bring you the follow-up to our absolutely stunning cask of old Garnheath, a grain whisky from the once-active distillery site inside of Inver House's Moffat site located just east of Glasgow on the road to Edinburgh. The distillery was located next to another closed malt producing site: Glenflagler. Closed in the mid-eighties, now just a memory and a story to share among friends, the spirit of Garnheath lives on (literally) in this single barrel, cask strength edition bottled just for K&L. Not only is the Garnheath a lost legend, this 43 year old edition is one of the smoothest, roundest, most luxurious whiskies we've ever had the pleasure of selling. It rolls across the tongue effortlessly, coating the palate with rich waves of caramel, honey and maple syrup. In classic grain whisky style, there's no maltiness or smoke here. It's just four glorious decades of barrel maturation at work: orange zest, candied sugar and apricot. A true whisky classic in the making and a piece of history, to boot. The whisky is a year older, but the price remains the same. This is the last cask of Garnheath in the warehouse and it will be the last we bring in under the Old Particular label. Bottled at 47.8 cask strength.

-David Driscoll