55°
Distillery : Kilchoman - Islay
1st Fill Ex-Oloroso Sherry Butts
Original Bottling
Limited Edition
Single Malt
Bottled in 2025
Unchillfiltered, Uncoloured
Peated around 20 ppm
On 14 December 2005, the first Kilchoman cask was filled. To mark the 20th anniversary of this great day, Anthony Wills, the distillery’s owner and founder, decided to open 20 casks and create four different bottlings, five casks per bottling. This is one of the four, distilled on 24 March 2011 and bottled on 21 April 2025, giving it exactly 14 years in the cask. There are 5 ex-Oloroso sherry butts, resulting in a total of 3,145 bottles. All stages of production took place on Islay, which is why the peat level is slightly lower than usual. Nowhere does it state that the whisky is cask strength, so I’m assuming it isn’t, though I can’t say for certain.
Let's Taste It :
Hazy, fresh, spicy and fruity sherry, barbecue smoke with a good layer of soot, dried fruit, raisins, dates, figs, apricots, crushed nuts, a strong whiff of iodine, baked apples, cinnamon, damp leather, smoked ham and strawberry jam. It becomes more vegetal and herbal after a while. Tobacco leaves, very discreet cereals. On the palate, fresh fruit, damson plums, some red berries, white peaches, blood oranges. A clump of dried, dusty peat. Lingering spices, acacia honey. FFairly long and powerful finish, though not overwhelmingly so, charcoal, chocolate, coffee, grilled meat, liquorice. Caramel and blackberries, a pinch of salt.
In Short,
It’s really very good, neither the sherry nor the peat is overly pronounced, leaving room for a variety of flavours and fruits rarely found in a peated whisky. It’s complex and deep, but eventually quite easy to drink. The only issue is the price, it’s sold at the price of an 18-year-old, which isn’t great value.
Score : 88
To Be Listened While Sipping :
Anne Bloom - The Saddest Smile
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