Last month Kilchoman Distillery auctioned a single bottle from the first cask that was filled in the distillery in December 2005. All the proceeds went toward The Beatson Cancer Charity (a very worthy cause!) and the winner had to shell £7,000 to enjoy the bottle and the first 10 year old Kilchoman whisky.
However, it’s not the first bottling to use whisky from this cask. During Feis Ile 2015, Kilchoman released a special bottle to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the distillery and check this paragraph from their website:
The 10th anniversary release is a vatting of sherry and bourbon casks filled between 2005 and 2012 and includes whisky from Cask Number 01/2005, the first cask ever filled at Kilchoman.
So you can taste whisky from this cask, but mixed with other younger vintages if you can get to the distillery shop (last I heard, there were still bottles available there for £90). Let’s check it:
Kilchoman 10th Anniversary Release (2005-2015) (58.2%, 3000 bottles, £249.99)
Nose: Deep matured peat smoke, still with a very kilchoman-y profile with ashes and chimney smoke, but it’s muted and soft. Honey glazed meat on BBQ, sweet malty cereals, vanilla, sweet fruit leaning toward red fruit (sherry impact) side. Over time getting some dried fruit note and the smoke intensify a bit yet still being kept in check.
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Nose: Glorious old sherry, sour and sweet, where to start? Lots of berries here, strawberries and raspberries, dates, figs, sultanas, cherries chocolate and plain milk chocolate, cooked nutmeg and a dash of bitter herbals and oak spices. Very rich and very fresh despite the old age. 
Nose: That’s a nose that isn’t taking prisoners – oriental spices, tea spices, menthol, sweet, some cigar leaves and tobacco, old books and leather but at the same time fresh sweet red fruit, brown caramel, Cream Brulee, Herbal, oranges and citrus fragranced. 
Nose: Oh my, this is good. It’s very sherried and with a spicy and dirty edge. Berries, soaked raisins, dark chocolate, nutmeg and honey. A fantastic nose, I could smell it for hours! 
Nose: A great fruity start with dark and deep fruit, peaches, pears and apricots, honey, rich and deep, you feel the age here. Nuts, nutmeg, and after nursing it in the glass for a while a bountiful of tropical fruit. All in all it’s a lovely nose. 
Nose: Just like the 25 yo this one carries too the Brora classic profile. I guess they work hard to retain it when vatting the casks for the annual special releases and it’s working for them. It’s sweeter, fresher and more friendly than the 25, gentle whiffs of smoke, fruity with a lot of peaches, wax, earthy, honey. Just plain gorgeous.
Nose: It’s plainly a Brora as there’s no mistake here with the combination of honey, wafts of peat smoke and wax. But the nose is closed and it needs some time to open up. after coaxing it a bit, we get floral notes, nutty and earthy notes and even some peaches. I added a few drops of water and was rewarded with pepper, honey and a citrus notes.
Nose: Sweet honey, a tad floral and perfume-y, chalk and a bit of dust, sometimes it feels chiseled (as serge says), remote stone fruit, apricots, unripe yellow plums, nails polish. With water: less dusty/chalk and fruitier. 
Nose: Yummy! Fragrance, honey and floral, peaches, coconuts, wood varnish and some sourness that turns into a funky and dirty note (yet lovely), white pepper and chocolate. 
Whisky Gospel 