Review by: ZoidbergOnTheRocks
Kilkerran is a very small distillery and it seems like for one reason or another I just haven’t had the opportunity to try it very often. It doesn’t really show up in our whisky group, or on random menus. So I decided to change that recently and made an effort to gather some. Today I’ll finally get around to sitting down and trying a 16 and a “heavily peated”, along with a sample of 8 CS I’ve had kicking around for a bit.
Tasted on 6/19/2022, neat in a Glencairn, water added later as appropriate.
Distillery: Glengyle
Bottler: Distillery Bottling
Region: Scotland, Campbeltown
ABV: 46.0%
Age: 16 years old. Bottled on 09/15/2021.
Cask type: 75% Bourbon / 25% Sherry
Natural color. Non-chill-filtered.
Nose: very mild peat and wood smoke. Seashells. Apricot, peach. Rather sweet. Warm sand. Ginger. With Water: more spice, oak. More fruit.
Taste: more peat and smoke here. Seawater, very maritime. Apples, sweet. Oaky spice. With Water: same.
Finish: earthy peat. Seawater. Oaky spice. A little fruit. The finish is a bit simple, and much of it fades quickly though the warm spice does linger for quite some time. With Water: a bit more smoke. More fruit now, for a bit. Still just spice left at the end.
Summary: this is good, but overall it’s a very simple dram without much interesting going on. I mean, I don’t want to say it’s boring, but I guess I just did. No off-notes at all, and some nice maritime and fruit notes on the nose. Lots of oaky spice on the palate, and that’s what lingers at the end once the rest of it runs for the hills. I’m genuinely surprised by the finish. Water doesn’t change this one much. I also get no sherry notes on this at all honestly, and I’m not sure what the 25% sherry casks are contributing.
Would I buy a bottle? no. I have this one, and it’s drinkable, but there are so many other bottles I’d reach for first. I might give this one away.
Final Score: 78.
Distillery: Glengyle
Bottler: Distillery Bottling
Region: Scotland, Campbeltown
ABV: 55.7%, cask strength
Age: 8 years old. Bottled in 10/2017.
Cask type: Bourbon Casks
Natural color. Non-chill-filtered. One of 9,000 bottles. Batch #2.
Nose: damp earth. Carbon. Honey, apple, peach. Vanilla. A touch herbal. Very mild peat. With Water: coal, more carbon. Fruit is quite good. Heather, pine, very herbal. Seashells. More smoke. Very nice balance.
Taste: earthy peat. A little dry, rather hot. Honey. Sweet, waxed apples. Nice mouthfeel. With Water: Heat is tamed. Oily, coal, machine oil. A bit more smoke.
Finish: mild coal smoke. Sweet honey. A bit herbal. Lemon, more citrus than the nose. Some seawater. Decent length. With Water: much bigger smoke, much more herbal. Earth. More maritime. Oil. Smoldering candles.
Summary: A bit hot neat, and adding a bit of water is where this one is at. Bigger all around, more herbal, oily, earthy, and maritime. More waxy notes come out. Nice balance overall, reasonable complexity, solid mouthfeel and finish. Surprisingly maritime. Solid mouthfeel and finish, with most of the notes lingering for quite some time. I’m really surprised by this one honestly. Fits right in there with good CS offerings from Islay. This is the one I’d look for in future for sure.
Would I buy a bottle? yes
Final Score: 87.
Kilkerran Heavily Peated Batch no. 4
Kilkerran generally uses what they call a “lightly peated” malt, around 15ppm. The first batch of this was 84ppm, which would certainly qualify, but I can’t find any info about this batch. The rest of the distillation process has a huge impact on how peat makes it into the final spirit, and I find minimal correlation between input ppm and all-up “peatiness” or “smokiness” in the glass. So let’s see what they ended up with here!
Distillery: Glengyle
Bottler: Distillery Bottling
Region: Scotland, Campbeltown
ABV: 58.6%, cask strength
Age: NAS. Bottled on 04/06/2021.
Cask type: 80% ex-bourbon and 20% ex-sherry casks
Natural color. Non-chill-filtered. Batch #4.
Nose: sourdough. Earthy peat. Seawater. Candle wax. Apple. Smoked salmon. With Water: malty bread. Oysters. Some citrus. Incense. A bit of sweaty funk.
Taste: more smoke. Peat. Earth. Seaweed, fatty salmon. Wax. A bit hot. Nice mouthfeel, oily. Black pepper. With Water: richer. More earthy, more fatty meats and smoke. Still a bit hot. More Water: still reads a bit hot!
Finish: rich, earthy peat and smoke. Seawater, salmon. A little waxy. Apples, apricots. Pepper. Flint. Long on earth, maritime notes, and spice. With Water: some new leather. Bigger smoke, more spice. A little dry.
Summary: this one is also surprisingly maritime throughout. Mild in terms of peat and smoke in the grand scheme of things but certainly more than the other two. Rather well balanced, and improved by water for sure. More smoke and spice in the finish. Feels like a young one for sure, and I’d love to try this next to a version w/ a bit more age to see what happens.
Would I buy a bottle? yes, happy to have this one.
Final Score: 85.
Comparison
Order: 8 CS > Heavily Peated > 16
This was a fun one. The 8 CS is the clear winner for me: most complexity, great mouthfeel, nice maritime notes. The heavily peated is also quite good, though a bit hot and young, still I dig that it’s presenting some nice complexity and some challenge. The 16 is very good, but wow it just seems so simple to me, especially compared to the others.
Scoring Legend:
- 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
- 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
- 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
- 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
- 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
- 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
- 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
- 50-59: Save it for mixing.
- 0-49: Blech.
Malt Runners 