Yula was the first of a three part trilogy of limited edition Island Malt Scotch Whisky released by Douglas Laing.

Yula is inspired by the ancient Islay legend of a beautiful but tragic Norse goddess, searching for a long lost love with an apron full of stones. During the journey the apron is torn, leaving a trail of islands. At the end she finds love but also tragically dies in the sea. The last stone that fell out of her apron formed Islay.

The first chapter of Yula is comprised of different peated malts from Islay and other islands (think Highland Park or Jura), all distilled in 1995.

Yula 20 yo 1995 (52,6%, Douglas Laing 2015, 900 btl.)

Nose: if you’re familiar with Bowmore of the early 1990s, then you’ll easily recognize this. It’s coastal and briney, with very light acetic touches, but it mingles wonderfully with a very nice fruitiness. Gooseberries, guava, barbecued pineapple, pears… Sweet barley. Hints of verbena. Some aromatic pepper and gentle soot.

Mouth: very citrusy at first (grapefruit, lemon), growing wider with touches of melon and passion fruits. I’m getting a few hints of lavender and violets as well, but nothing too bad. Some charred notes and peat. Fades on slightly bitter, zesty notes with light liquorice.

Finish: medium long, sweet and salty, with a medicinal edge.

You gotta love this combination of tropical fruits and coastal peat. The score would have gone into the 90s if not for the floral (soapy) touches on the palate. Around € 155. Still available in some places.

Score: 88/100

2Comments

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1

Ricardo on 7 March 2016 at 06:25

Has anyone ever determined the cause those floral notes?
2

WhiskyNotes on 7 March 2016 at 08:39

I think Bowmore has always been the most floral Islay whisky, but this may be down to the relatively lower peating levels which causes more delicate aromas to be noticeable more.

There has been a specific problem with Bowmore distilled in the 1980s which were too floral, with lots of perfumy notes, soapy notes, parma violets… (look up ‘FWP’). Auchentoshan and Glen Garioch (distilleries from the same group together with Bowmore) have the same kind of soapiness in the same era. I’ve heard claims of Dave Broom that blaimed some faulty energy-savings system with too hot condensers. I’ve also heard things about anti-foaming agents (apparently soap is used for this). See http://whiskyscience.blogspot.be/2011/06/lavender-in-whisky-conspiracy-of-french.html

However I’ve never heard of FWP Bowmore that was distilled in the 1990s, so in this Yula it is likely to be a ‘normal’ floral touch (which is often a prolongation of an intense lemony note). In any case real FWP bottlings are 100 times worse than what I’m getting in this Yula.

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