Review by: The Muskox

This is the last of the four Campbeltown hand-fills that asipper brought home from Scotland last year. The Hazelburn, Springbank, and Longrow handfills from the same trip were all good-to-great – now it’s Kilkerran’s turn at bat. Like those other hand-fills, this is essentially an NAS living cask, which is continually topped up with the dregs from random casks.

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Distillery: Glengyle.

Bottler: Official bottling.

Region: Campbeltown.

ABV: 59.8%, cask strength.

Age: NAS. Bottled in 11/2022.

Price: $70 USD for 700 mL at the distillery.

Color: No colour added, un-chillfiltered.

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Nose: Very spirity and fragrant. There’s a fair bit of that new-make character: volatile greenness, raw malt, briny peat, and a slightly savoury seafood character. Fresh notes of cilantro, grapefruit, ginger, and gooseberry.

Palate: Medium-thick, creamy texture. Arrives sweet and green, with maple sap and a slight lactic character. Some heavier fragrant flavours of clover honey and lavender, as well as some fruit notes of kiwi and key limes. Fresh peat on the development, with burning green tree branches and matcha.

Finish: Medium-length, smoky. Lemon drops. Creamy smoke, earthy peat-reek, and kelp, with those briny and lactic notes creating almost a Swiss cheese flavour. More green fragrances – bergamot, cilantro, spruce, slight sparkly ginger.

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Possible SMWS bottling name: “Flaming alpine meadow”

Notes: This is fairly good and definitely characterful, but overly young for my taste. It’s the only one out of these handfills with that particular problem. There’s interesting flavour here, but this drinks a lot closer to things like the inaugural Raasay or Ardnamurchan bottlings than it should.

Final Score: 78.

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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.