This is a pre arrival offering with a firm cutoff date. Timing is an estimate and can shift due to carrier schedules, port congestion, customs, or warehouse receiving.
Finn Thomson Whisky Caol Ila 2010, 15 Year Old, Passito di Caluso Finish
Peated Caol Ila, distilled in 2010, fifteen years old, and finished in a cask that held Passito di Caluso, the sweet straw-wine of Piedmont made from Erbaluce grapes dried on mats before pressing. Bottled by Finn Thomson at 58.3% cask strength, natural colour, non-chill filtered.
Islay smoke and Italian dessert wine is not a pairing you see often, which is exactly why Finn put it in his last bottling run of the year. The Caluso cask brings honey, apricot and candied orange to meet Caol Ila's clean, briny, bonfire smoke. Mark Sherriffs at Finn Thomson told us to bag both Caol Ilas because they are amazing; we did. 150 bottles worldwide, 24 of them for the United States.
About Finn Thomson Whisky
Finn Thomson is the ninth generation of Scotland's oldest whisky family. The Thomson name traces back to the 1770s through Perthshire, where Peter Thomson Ltd built the beloved Beneagles blend using casks from Longmorn, Clynelish, North British and other lesser-known workhorses.
Finn Thomson Whisky continues that tradition as an independent single cask bottler. Every release is hand-selected, bottled at cask strength, non-chill filtered, with natural colour. Eye on the past. Vision for the future. This cask was bottled at Young Spirits in Edinburgh and is imported exclusively by The Whiskey Lab.
Distillery profile, Caol Ila
- Founded in 1846 at Port Askaig on the Sound of Islay, looking across to the Paps of Jura. The largest distillery on the island.
- Owned by Diageo, and the peated backbone of Johnnie Walker. Most of it goes into blends, so single casks are the way to taste it straight.
- House style is elegant peat: cleaner and more coastal than its Islay neighbours, with lemon, brine and a grassy, oily smoke rather than tar.
- At 15 years the smoke has softened enough to let a wine finish sit beside it.
Cask profile, Passito di Caluso
Passito di Caluso is a DOCG dessert wine from Caluso, north of Turin. Erbaluce grapes are dried on racks for months before pressing, then aged at least four years in wood. The wine is golden, honeyed, apricot and orange peel, with a nutty oxidative edge.
A cask of it on peated Islay malt gives you sweet fruit and honey running straight into coastal smoke, at 58.3%. It is a finish for people who already love Caol Ila and want to hear it in a different key.
Cask No. 78394, distilled 6 October 2010, bottled 26 August 2026, 150 bottles. The final two years of its fifteen were spent in the Passito di Caluso cask.
The story of this cask, in Finn Thomson's words
While exploring the wine bars of Milan and discovering some of Italy's lesser-known wines, we came across Passito di Caluso, a beautifully rich dessert wine from the Piedmont region. Its intense sweetness and depth of fruit immediately caught our attention, and we began imagining how it might work with the coastal, smoky character of a Caol Ila single malt.
Passito di Caluso is created using a process whose roots stretch back to the ancient Greeks. Traditionally, grapes harvested in September are dried before fermentation, concentrating their natural sugars and intensifying their flavours. Although far less common today, this traditional "passito" method produces one of Italy's hidden gems: a wine filled with rich notes of dried fruit, honey and delicate sweetness.
We felt that this character could marry beautifully with Caol Ila's smoky peat and coastal salinity. This 15 year old whisky spent the final two years of its maturation in a Passito di Caluso wine cask, giving these two very different characters the time they needed to come together.
The result is a wonderfully balanced single cask. Caol Ila's smoky peat and salty maritime character weave through the luscious sweetness of the wine, bringing notes of honeyed fruit, raisins and gentle spice. Each sip is a meeting of ancient Italian winemaking and the rugged Islay coastline, a distinctive collaboration between Italy and Scotland, shaped by patience, instinct and time.
On Tasting Notes
You will not find tasting notes here. By design.
The Whiskey Lab publishes every technical detail a curious drinker could ask for: distillery, cask, distillation date, ABV, outturn. Everything that makes the liquid what it is. What we leave to you is the experience of drinking it.
Tasting notes shape expectation. They tell you what you should find before you find it. Our position is that the spirit in your glass should speak for itself, and what you find there belongs to you. Pour it neat. Add a few drops of water if it asks for it. Take your time. The cask did.
| Specification | Details |
|---|---|
| Brand | Finn Thomson Whisky, Private Cask Collection |
| Style | Single malt Scotch whisky, single cask, peated |
| Region | Islay |
| Distillery | Caol Ila, Port Askaig |
| Age | 15 years |
| ABV | 58.3% (cask strength) |
| Volume | 700ml |
| Cask | Passito di Caluso sweet wine cask finish |
| Cask number | 78394 |
| Outturn | 150 bottles |
| Distilled | 6 October 2010 |
| Bottled | 26 August 2026, Young Spirits Co, Edinburgh |
| Natural colour | Yes |
| Non-chill filtered | Yes |
| Availability | Pre-order, October Import, arrives November 4, 2026 |
The Whiskey Lab's Quality Commitments
- Single Cask & Small Batch: Ensuring a unique profile for each release.
- Natural Colour & Non-Chill Filtered: Preserving the authentic character and purity of the whisky.
- Honest Storytelling: Every cask profile written by people who actually handled the liquid.
