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Day 25 - KWM 2025 This Is Still Not An Advent Calendar

Posted on December 25, 2025

by Evan

Merry Christmas! We have finally made it to the last – but not least dram in our 2025 KWM Still Not An Advent Calendar tasting series!

I am curious to see what your favourites in this year’s KWM Still Not An Advent Tasting Series ended up being. Please don't hesitate to email me your thoughts!

My personal top 5 in no particular order:

Just yesterday, I spent most of my post banging on about how the best thing Gordon & MacPhail ever did was purchase and revive Benromach Distillery. I mean, who cares about Independent bottlers. If you’ve tasted one indie bottling, you’ve tasted them all, right?

Well, it looks like for this Christmas, the gift I am to give is to eat my own words. Benromach Distillery is indeed part of what makes Gordon & MacPhail great. But, G&M’s status as the premier independent bottler should not be understated.

I am not just saying that in the hopes that the company continues to send us great cask samples for us to choose from, either. Gordon & MacPhail is what many indie bottlers hope to eventually grow up to be one day.

There are many indie bottlers out there. A lot of them put out impressive cask picks, too. They have good connections to whisky brokers and have staff or consultants that are able to sniff out a good deal on a great cask or parcel.

But only a handful of companies can afford to take the time and make the investment to purchase spirit from different distilleries in bulk and then fill them into their own custom-made made and specifically seasoned casks. There are companies producing and bottling their own whisky that did not invest as much in casks as Gordon & MacPhail has, just to put other people’s whisky into.

You can’t start a bottling company and get to that stage overnight; not unless you start with a downright insane reserve of cash you are happy to burn through at an unreasonable rate before ever getting to a point of seeing any return on investment.

The kind of work Gordon & MacPhail undertakes does not just start with buying a tanker load of somebody else’s spirit. With its focus on bespoke sherry casks, it doesn’t even start with filling said casks with sherry at the Bodega. It starts with the creation of the cask itself; with the choice of using thicker staves that allow for calmer and potentially longer maturation periods. On the whisky side, it starts with having longstanding contracts for portions of new make spirit that go back decades or even generations. Sadly, the time has come and gone for some of those contracts, and they have been impossible to renew thanks to this past whisky boom and the dollar signs dancing in every whisky company’s eyes.

Maybe the current whisky downturn we are living in will bring some of those contracts back, as companies remember that sometimes having a consistent, reliable cash flow is safer than rolling the dice on maturing selling all of your stock for impossible amounts of money yourself...

There have been rumblings – mostly coming from Gordon & MacPhail themselves – that the opening of The Cairn Distillery a few years back coincided with a plan to stop purchasing and laying down whisky from other distilleries. I am sure they are not as focused on maturing other companies' whisky as they were 20, 30, and 40+ years ago, but I hope they never get out of that side of the business completely. The Scotch Whisky industry as a whole benefits from having G&M set a high bar on what can be done in both whisky production and whisky bottling. Losing either portion of that of what makes G&M so great would be saddening for consumers and whisky lovers everywhere.

Virtual Tasting that focuses on Caol Ila Distillery, hosted by Kensington Wine Market

When it comes to single casks from indie bottlers, a Caol Ila is hard to beat - especially if you are a fan of peated whisky from Islay. The distillery is the largest on the island by far, producing about 40% or so more spirit each year then the next largest (Laphroaig). It is a workhorse distillery that pumps out whisky for Johnnie Walker Black label and is sought after by other blenders beyond parent company Diageo as well.

As I have said before - it seems like an impossible task to mess up a Caol Ila Single Malt. It does fantastically in ex-Bourbon casks, holds its own in ex-Sherry hoggies and butts, and can even manage to make a wine cask finish seem like a good idea. If Caol Ila has a problem, it might be that we see so much of it on the market from indie bottlers.

Oh great, another Caol Ila!

I have been guilty of thinking that myself, sarcastically. You can't look for a new and different bottling of peated whisky without tripping over three different Caol Ila cases in your search.

The beauty of Caol Ila is that its style is simple. Salty. Oily. Full of peat and smoke. But within that combination you can find plenty of variation. Take the Port Askaig 17 we had back on Day 10. What makes that one of my favourite bottles in this year's Advent Calendar tastings is how clean and crisp it is. It is a laser focused Islay Single Malt. But, you can find plenty of dirty Caol Ila around as well - full of dirty and musky barnyard notes and oily brine. Or you can get a savoury, barbecue-driven style when it is matured or finished in sherry casks.

We are going for the cleaner side of Caol Ila with this KWM Cask we are tasting today. What sets it apart is the age of this whisky. At 22 years, we are going to see an Islay dram in the midst of a metamorphosis. It is transitioning from the youthful caterpillar stage into a beautiful butterfly.

Enough of that. Let's see if I am just spouting BS or if this whisky is actually as good as I am making it to be.

Shall we?

G&M CC Caol Ila 2002 KWM Cask 8384 – 55.2%

This is the oldest Caol Ila cask we have ever had the privilege of bottling. Distilled in 2002, the whisky was matured 22 years in a First Fill ex-Bourbon Barrel, Cask No. 8384, before bottling at 55.2%. 177 total bottles!

Andrew's Tasting Note

Nose: tarry, fatty, and fruity, with a decadent edge; the bacon wrapped scallops are there, poached in butter to make them even more opulent; there is even a touch of cold foie gas on butter brioche; honey, Chantilly cream, and salted caramel; candied apple, poached pear with blue cheese, and Pineau des Charentes; the malt and smoke are there, but they are playing hard to get.

Palate: juicy, fruity, and sweet, with a tarry, oily, and fatty body; salted caramel, charred honey, and sponge toffee; the bacon wrapped scallop is still there, atop a thin piece of brioche liberally toasted in butter with a dollop of cold foie gras on top; then we are on to the fruits, starting with apples and pears we find ourselves drifting into grilled pineapple and bananas foster; all the while a whiff of soft tarry smoke drifts in the background.

Finish: fading fruits, sweet treats, and opulent appetizers with a whiff of clean tarry smoke; elegant and understated.

Comment: I am at a loss to add to this, it's all in the tasting note.... quite simply this is superb... [drops mic and walks away].

Andrew wrote his tasting note a few months ago, when this Caol Ila KWM cask first arrived at our store. I believe that mic drop is a good note to end our 2025 KWM Still Not An Advent Calendar tasting series on though, is it not?

On behalf of Andrew, myself, and all staff here at Kensington Wine Market: we hope you have enjoyed this year’s Advent tastings.

See you again next year for the 2026 edition!

Cheers,

Evan

evan@kensingtonwinemarket.com