Kilkerran 8 Year Old is the young cask strength offering from Glengyle distillery. So far there have been 4 batches of this whisky (first batch was checked back in 2017 here).

But the last batch (No. 4) deviated from the road paved by the first 3 batches and offers a sherry matured Kilkerran 8 Year Old instead of the Bourbon casks used in the previous three batches.

And it’s not just regular sherry casks but Re-charred Oloroso Sherry casks, making the wood a bit more (or maybe a lot more) active. 15,000 bottles were produced at 57.1%. Let’s check it out!

Kilkerran 8 Year Old Re-charred Oloroso Sherry Casks (57.1%, €74,48)

Nose: Cherries and raspberry chocolate, greenery leaning towards vegetal/farmy side, a bit of wood smoke, cranberries. After a few minutes more dark chocolate (with high cocoa content) and cherries, a minuscule herbal/floral side show up yet still have the dirt and peat in the background to complement and balance the sherry influence. Quite an intense nose! Continue reading →

Earlier this year Glengyle distillery released their first batch of Heavily Peated whisky, following the road they took for the standard Kilkerran whisky with slightly semantic difference – Instead of “Work In Progress” it’s called “Peat in Progress”. And in a few years we’ll have the first standard heavily peated Kilkerran whisky (the cousin for Longrow).

You’re probably asks: “Heavily peated? Just how heavily peated is it?” and the answer is: very heavily peated with 84 PPM, which is almost twice (more or less) of the PPM levels for the south Islay distilleries and second only to Bruichladdich’s Octomore whiskies.

While the bottle doesn’t sport age statement and it’s not mentioned in any official publication, the age isn’t a real secret and it’s a 3 year old whisky (which would be the official age anyway for NAS whisky).

9,000 bottles were produced from a mix of Ex-Bourbon and Ex-Sherry Casks (55% and 45% respectively).

Kilkerran Heavily Peated Batch No. 1 (59.3%)

Nose: Very oily and peated, cured meat, BBQ party, slightly greenery, barley sugar, chimney smoke, vanilla and pears pudding and eventually there’s coal smoke and more greenery. Very rich and not too punchy despite the ABV and young age. Continue reading →

Along with the Hazelburn 13 release I reviewed a few days ago, there was another eagerly waited Campbeltown release, the Kilkerran 8 Cask Strength.

The official Kilkerran 12 Year Old is a smashing success with a few batches bottled so far and now comes the younger sibling, the Kilkerran 8 Year Old. But to compensate for its youth, we do get to enjoy it at cask strength of 56.2%

The last cask strength Kilkerran was the Work In Progress 7 Bourbon Cask which was simply brilliant, but this time we’re 3 years short and with far more active casks involved, so let’s see how does it fare.

Kilkerran 8 Year Old Cask Strength (56.2%, £54/€54.99)

Nose: On first tasting it was a bit shy but on the second round a few days later it became very sweet and rich with lots of malt and honey. But there’s dry side with dry and a bit acrid peat smoke and some fundamental Campbeltown funk. Vanilla, again, very sweet, perhaps a bit too much?  Continue reading →

This post was sitting in the drafts folder for a while and it’s about time I’ll finish it as it discuss a whisky which was the whisky of the year 2016 for me, the Kilkerran 12 Year Old and it will be best if I get it published before end of February 🙂

Before we go down to the tasting notes, let’s talk about titles and what a big difference adding or omitting a word means. I was reading the two-parts interview with Jim Murray on The Whisky Exchange Blog that followed the 2017 book release, and yes, just like so many of my friends I did roll my eyes at his attitude and antics but I also noticed that unlike previous years his infamous awards which previously I just couldn’t fathom now kinda made sense to me.

Now, don’t be too shocked from this revelation. I myself was shocked enough for all of us, but it’s really a simple matter of understanding that his awards doesn’t go to the BEST whisky of the year 2017 but to a whisky that he crown as “whisky of the year”. Do you notice the omission here? In case you didn’t noticed the bold and capital word before, the word BEST is missing out there.

So what is the best whisky of the year? Truthfully, I have no idea as it’s a very subjective choice and depends on what you tasted in the last year. I will offer a theory that for most of us it will usually be one of old-aged whiskies or perhaps a special single cask (a la those Kavalan solists that won MMA awards). If so, the play-field is narrower than what we think and any choice from those whiskies will likely be acceptable as a proper choice even if not exactly your choice. But when it comes to straight and simple “whisky of the year”, the rule set is broader and even more subjective as it doesn’t relay on taste only and involves other factors. So i tried to compile my own rule set for such a selection:

• It should be a good whisky – I mean, come on, we won’t select a bad or mediocre whisky (even if it’s over hyped) as whisky of the year, right?
• Accessibility – A single cask or low count of bottles, bottling for a specific market are striked-out. What’s the point of hailing a whisky that most of us won’t have a chance to taste it because we can’t lay our hands on it?
• Affordability – a brother clause to the previous one. Lagavulin 25yo 200th anniversary? 8000 bottles but it comes with an abhorring price tag. So it won’t be my selection

So I followed the rules above and eventually selected the whisky I review today as my whisky of the year – it’s affordable, accessible, it’s pretty good and isn’t riding a huge PR hype wave. It’s a whisky to drink and enjoy

Kilkerran 12 Year Old (46%, £49.50/€49.61/$59.99)

Nose: Starts with gentle wafts of smoke and Campbeltown funk. There’s leather, tobacco leaves, engine fumes and oils, all accompanied by sweet red dried fruit. Farmy with grass, hey and green tomatoes. After it opens up a bit there is honey and the red fruits show up again. Continue reading →

Last night was star wars night when I went to view “The force awakening” on the first screening (a minute past midnight). But I paid dearly for this adventure as I missed the opportunity to delve into the daily dram and maybe get a full slate of 100 points. It was clear to me that it’s a Campeltown whisky, aged 10-12 and mid fifties ABV but since I had no time, I entered a generic guess of Springbank, 12yo, 54% which yielded me 69 points, the highest daily amount of the competition. Oh, there was a whisky too and it was good! It’s the limited edition of Kilkerran WIP 7 in Bourbon cask, the last Work in Progress in the series before we get the regular OB 12 yo next year.

Kilkerran Work In Progress (WIP) 7 Bourbon Wood (54.1%, 11 Year old, £49.99/€75.9)

Nose: Hmm, first sniff was weird with lots of lactic notes and dirt, but it settled down after some air exposure and then we got a myriad of notes: honey and a lot of farmy notes with hey, grass and a bit of greenery. It has that lovely dirtiness combo of brine, peat smoke and diesel oil. How dirty it is? let’s say that after a bit while, it’s dirtier than the dirty dozen 🙂 oh, and I still get a weak lactic note but it’s fitting OK in the big picture here.
Continue reading →