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Release Notes
Kilchoman's Winter 2010 release is finally with us, and as usual it's likely to go pretty fast. We tasted a sublime cask strength pre-release sample of this at 2010's Whisky Show and think it's the best standard release Killy yet.
The Whisky Exchange
3rd Party Tasting Notes
The Nose: Much like the Summer 2010 bottling, the nose is dominated by smokey peat. It's medicinal yes, slightly ashy, but the smoke is a little richer, less green, more like dry wood smoke. There are nice butterscotch notes along with French vanilla ice cream and hints of candied citrus and ripe melon.:
The Palate: The palate opens with more of that butterscotch-y, caramel-y sweetness. Along with soft hints of roasted salted nuts, the smoke and peat move in heavily, but they don't completely overwhelm those sweet, from-the-barrel notes. The Peat and Smoke end up just slightly ashy and bitter, but not harsh, just a bit of that youthful exuberance at the end.
The Finish: Nice, decent length, peaty and smoky as expected, salty with continued notes of caramel-y sweetness.
Thoughts: So far, Kilchoman, you're 3 for 3. Of the three I've tasted, I think the Winter 2010 Release is the most balanced and...mature tasting, yet this stuff is just over three years old...very impressive. I think the influence from the Buffalo Trace casks comes through quite a bit. The wood lends a lush sweetness that helps to tone down the brash, youthful smoke and peat just a bit, making for a more structured, restrained malt. I love the aggressiveness of the Summer 2010 Release, but I think the balance here works even better.
The Palate: The palate opens with more of that butterscotch-y, caramel-y sweetness. Along with soft hints of roasted salted nuts, the smoke and peat move in heavily, but they don't completely overwhelm those sweet, from-the-barrel notes. The Peat and Smoke end up just slightly ashy and bitter, but not harsh, just a bit of that youthful exuberance at the end.
The Finish: Nice, decent length, peaty and smoky as expected, salty with continued notes of caramel-y sweetness.
Thoughts: So far, Kilchoman, you're 3 for 3. Of the three I've tasted, I think the Winter 2010 Release is the most balanced and...mature tasting, yet this stuff is just over three years old...very impressive. I think the influence from the Buffalo Trace casks comes through quite a bit. The wood lends a lush sweetness that helps to tone down the brash, youthful smoke and peat just a bit, making for a more structured, restrained malt. I love the aggressiveness of the Summer 2010 Release, but I think the balance here works even better.
TheCasks.com
The Distillery: Kilchoman
| Established: 2005 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: Rockside Farm, Bruichladdich, Isle of Islay, Scotland, PA49 7UT |
| → website |
Scotland"s potentially most traditional distillery made a bit of an an odd start. Instead of employing the traditional distillery cat they went for a distillery pig - Lucy. Well, Anthony seems confident in Lucy"s pest control abilities ;-) During the summer of 2004 the traditional farm buildings at Rockside Farm (near Machir Bay) were being converted into a visitor centre and the first distillery buildings. Two stainless steel washbacks arived in February 2005 and the stills (a 2,000 liter spirit still with a long narrow neck and a 3,000 liter wash still) were installed in February 2005. They are directly heated. The first spirit was scheduled to flow on June 2, 2005 during the Islay festival but they didn"t make that date. Anthony DID manage to give some of the maniacs a tour of the facilities though - and Olivier"s passionate arguments against industrial yeast may have helped convince Anthony to avoid those. You can read all about our adventures at Kilchoman in entry #240 in my Liquid Log. The first Kilchoman spirit finally flowed from the stills in November 2005.
Kilchoman will initially be in production for 28 weeks of the year. Fresh bourbon and refill barrels form the base of the maturation programme, but other casks (sherry, port, rum and wine) may be used as well. Well, that"s a break with "tradition" I could certainly live with... The first mature Kilchoman whisky is still a few years away, but fortunately for visitors to Islay the visitor centre is already finished. It tells the story of farm distilling on Islay in the 18th and 19th century from its illicit beginnings to legislation. The shop sells a range of Kilchoman merchandise including miniature bottles of Kilchoman "New Spirit" as well as a range of fresh and smoked venison and beef from the Islay Fine Food Co. The café serves fabulous home made soups - I recall some especially fine pumpkin or potato soup...
Kilchoman was the first new distillery to be built on Islay for well over a century. The driving force behind Kilchoman is Anthony Wills and he dreams of building the smallest and most traditional distillery in Scotland, or at least on Islay. Kilchoman will be one of the few distilleries that will be able to claim that every step of the production process is carried out on site. Barley (Optic and Chalice) will be grown at Rockside Farm and malted on Kilchoman"s malt floor. The spirit will be produced, matured and bottled on site and everything produced at the distillery will be bottled as single malt whisky. The whisky won"t be chill filtered or coloured and will be reduced to a standard bottling strength of 50% using Islay water.
from Malt Madness