Written by Mika Tanimoto, Owner-Bartender, Bar Little Happiness — Hiroshima’s specialist whisky & rum bar with 1,000+ bottles
Caol Ila is, by volume, one of the most important distilleries on Islay. The distillery produces a large proportion of the peated spirit that goes into blended Scotch whisky — most significantly Johnnie Walker. For most of its modern history, its single malt was almost unknown outside specialist circles, because almost all of what was produced went into blends.
This silence — the distillery’s decades of relative anonymity in the single malt world — is part of what makes Caol Ila interesting. The whisky existed. It was very good. Almost nobody knew it existed as a single malt.
The Character: Elegance Against Expectation
Caol Ila sits on the Sound of Islay — the strait between Islay and the neighbouring island of Jura — in a building that hangs over the water in a way that feels deliberately dramatic. The view from the distillery is one of the more striking in Scottish whisky.
The whisky itself challenges the assumption that all Islay single malt is aggressive. Caol Ila is peated — significantly so — but the peat is maritime and coastal, and the overall character of the spirit is lighter and more elegant than Ardbeg or Lagavulin. The smoke is present and real, but it sits within a framework of floral, citrus, and gentle oily notes that give the whisky a more feminine quality, as it is often described — softer, less confrontational, more contemplative.
For anyone who has been told they do not like peated whisky, Caol Ila is often the bottle that changes that conclusion.
Caol Ila expressions are available at Bar Little Happiness. Read the full Japanese columns: little-happiness.jp/columns/caolila-elegance-feminine-v1/
Bar Little Happiness | Hiroshima, Japan
Rum & Whisky specialists | 1,000+ bottles | English menu available
Open Mon–Sat 7PM–12:30AM, Sun 7PM–midnight
No cover charge. Walk-ins welcome.
english.little-happiness.jp