Hi everyone,
Kilchoman has been proving to be one of the smokiest, mineral whiskies that money can buy you at times. And keeps on releasing some stunning (not to mention interesting) stuff. And they’ll normally put vintages on the packaging. And the pricing isn’t crazy.
Every year they do an interesting wine cask release, with 2017 being red wine. These are not finishings either, but full maturation in these casks. I bought a bottle of the Madeira a while back, and had the Sauternes last year, so of course I needed to try the new one. Especially after the other people I write for, Drinkhacker, gave it a very good score and seemed to love it.
The other one I’ve got today is a single cask I tasted recently in a great little whisky bar in Stirling called the Curley Coo. What I didn’t know was that they had a traditional Gaelic singing group in that night and my dram was accompanied by their majestic songs! Great night.
Kilchoman Red Wine 2017 50%
Colour: Redish
Body: Full
Nose: Wine gums, red fruit, berries, not much smoke, a little sulphur, pomegranate, vanilla and gummy bears. A little bit of a strange mix to me.
Taste: Red berries, some sulphur then LOTS of funky sulphur and smoke, intense mineral notes, lots of slate, really peaty too! Wasn’t expecting that after the nose!
Finish: Long length. Intense, mineral, juicy, some smoke.
Distilled 2012, bottled 2017. Tiring whisky this, but good. Really wasn’t expecting the big smoke on the taste from that nose.
78/100
Kilchoman 2006 Single Cask 51.1%
Colour: Gold
Body: Full
Nose: Lovely, very peaty and intense, malty, oily and mineral, no fruit in sight, all about the smoke. Lagavulin-esque in my mind.
Taste: Very soft to start, builds slowly with seriously mineral notes, then peat and freshly dug earth, creamy mouthfeel with vanilla. Nice balance of flavours here.
Finish: Medium length. Softer than expected, more minerally, seaweed, drier with some oak. Almost a little Laphroaiggian.
2006-2014 at 8yo from a Bourbon barrel. Really very nice, can’t wait to see what this distillery tastes like at 12 or 15.
82/100
Thanks for reading!
Scotch Reviews #566-#567
Whisky Network Reviews #671-#672
Network Average: 74.7
Best Score: 93
Worst Score: 22
0-49 Terrible
50-59 Bad
60-64 Just About OK
65-69 Ok to Good
70-74 Good
75-79 Very Good
80-84 Excellent
85-89 Superb
90+ Magnificent
Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.
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