Hepburn's Choice Caol Ila 10yo Port

The Maker

Hunter Laing remains a family business having been established as a whisky blender in post-war Glasgow. Much like similar companies such as Cadenhead’s and Gordon and MacPhail, Hunter Laing has prided itself on its reputation for sourcing and maturing some of the best scotch on the market and then bringing it to consumers in both faithful and surprising ways.

Over the more than 70 years their range has expanded to include around a dozen brand lines. Including the high end ‘Old & Rare’ series which very much does what it says on the tin, through to the Scarabus collection, which is a series of heavily peated Islay releases which I’ve always taken to be young Caol Ila.

For this review I have a bottle from the Hepburn’s Choice range. As Hunter Laing ranges go this is towards the middle of their release slate, and is named for Laing family ancestor William Hepburn who had a long and successful career as a diplomat. As a general rule all Hepburn's Choice whiskies are either single cask, or are drawn from no more than three casks of the same maturation. They also ensure fully natural presentation and seek to “showcase the specific characteristics of one of Scotland’s whisky producing regions, or those of a distillery in particular”.

As is often the case then talking about independent bottlers there isn’t a great many interesting things to say. They are after all a pretty standard company which is so well established that they have been doing the same thing well enough for many decades. One point to note however, is that Hunter Laing are the power behind Islay’s new Ardnahoe distillery – which at the time of writing has finally issued its inaugural release after much speculation as to whether it ever would, given the recent downward trend in whisky sales. By all accounts Ardnahoe is a great new addition to the Islay whisky scene and will hopefully turn out to be a success in the long term despite seemingly having burnt several bridges with Islay locals to get to this point.

The Expression

When trying a new independent bottler it's always best to go with what you know. For me that always makes Caol Ila the obvious choice given that I’ve drunk a hundred or more versions over the years and nearly a quarter of my reviews so far are whiskies that originate from them in some form.  As such, it's easily the whisky I know best and therefore feel confident enough to judge how this release compares to others on the market. By the same token, I won’t take up space repeating a short history of Caol Ila, but recommend reading my review of their 2018 Kentucky Bourbon & Californian Red Wine matured Distillery Exclusive if you want to know more.

This ten year old release was fully matured in two port barrels having been distilled in 2009. In total 648 bottles were created which suggests that those barrels were not traditional Port Pipes as they would have likely yielded a fair bit more assuming they were of standard 550-650l in size. Or they just were not very full of course! As noted above as this is from the Hepburn’s Choice range the presentation is fully natural so far that it’s without colour, isn’t chill-filtered, and is presented at 46% ABV. This was the last bottle available on Master of Malt in December 2023 at the full RRP of £79.

The Neck Pour

As soon as the top comes off this bottle you get a huge waft of the classic oily fish and BBQ smoke of Caol Ila. But there’s more. There’s the rich stone fruit you expect from the port but it isn’t overpowering. Indeed I’d apply that to all the elements on the nose. They are there. They are nice. But there’s nothing outside of what you’d expect and nothing which stands out as especially interesting or intense. I can’t help but compare this to the North Start Caol Ila Port Periodical release I have open alongside this (and by the time of writing long finished and reviewed) which offered far more of everything upon opening.

This pleasant, but safe approach continues onto the palate where it becomes a very easy drinking whisky. The core range Caol Ila goodness is there but with an added fresh sweetness instead of citrus. These are followed by the bitter tannins of the port and a rich and creamy consistency which is more akin to red wine than whisky.

Yet, once again, I find myself struggling to pick out individual flavours beyond BBQ, mackerel, and port. There’s perhaps a more pronounced rosemary element but nothing groundbreaking. Hopefully this will open up a bit more with time on the shelf.

The Body

Coming back to this a few months later I don’t think it has opened up to reveal a great deal more on the nose. The palate is offering a bit more of that classic Caol Ila citrus notes, but this time in the form of BBQ pineapple that also brings out the simpler flavours of vanilla crème brulee.

To get further input I again shared this with my local whisky club where it came fourth out of twelve. That’s hardly a bad performance but the general feedback was that this was a solid, nice whisky that no one disliked, but wasn’t enough to set the world alight. I guess that’s fine, but when it’s edging towards £80 a bottle then it doesn't seem enough. Especially when you consider how crowded the market is with indi Caol Ila.

Final Thoughts

As I come to the end of this bottle I’m disappointed to report that there hasn’t really been much of a development since opening. While the label insists that the drinker will find the likes of ‘raisin studded fudge’ and ‘plumbs’, I find myself more limited to everything I’ve described above.

A bottle not developing isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But among my reviews it's something I’ve tended to find more with the lower end of the market, rather than the £60-£120 price point I tend to purchase at. And as much as I think this bottle is still pleasant enough, it simply isn’t delivering what it needs to in order to justify its cost. Had this been a £55 whisky I would have perhaps been more forgiving.

But more than that I just keep coming back to that North Star offering which simply outclassed this in every way. Yes that was £50 for 50cl, but the per centilitre North Star is still offering a lot better quality, value and excitement. In the crowded market of independent bottlers there really hasn’t been enough here to make me return to Hepburn’s Choice in a hurry.