Wednesday 5 April 2017

Kilchoman Single Casks: 2007 & 2011 Sherry Reviews

Hi everyone,

I don’t really know how they do it, but Kilchoman really does well as a young whisky. At 5 or 6 years old it’s got a character and complexity that most malts takes years to master. 
What really interested me though was, what would this whisky taste like when it’s slightly older? 9, 10 or 12 years old and further? Well, we are just starting to get those questions answered and the future looks bright.

I’ve never tried any Kilchoman official single casks, so when the opportunity came up while I was working at Whisky in Leiden in the Netherlands, I jumped on it. Many thanks for Hans Bresser for the samples and generally being awesome!

Kilchoman 2011 Sherry Single Cask 58.2%
Colour: Amber
Body: Full
Nose: Cakey and vanilla-y, raisin, some black cherry, cherry desert sauce on vanilla cheesecake maybe? You get the picture. Very little of the smoke or malt.
Unfortunately, it’s sulphury with water, in a bad way.
Taste: Big black cherry, building spice and slightly sulphury rubber. Not such a good cask methinks.
Finish: Medium/Long length. Back to lovely black cherry.
Distilled 22/09/2011, bottled 14/11/2016 from an Oloroso Sherry cask. Ah damn. The finish is lovely but the sulphur kind of got in the way here. Was hoping it would open up more but never did.
74/100

Kilchoman 2007 Single Cask for Bresser & Timmer 56.2%
Colour: Gold
Body: Full
Nose: A classy, classic Kilchoman. Balanced and complex with minerality, malty, fruity with melon and an amazing lime note.
Taste: Huge and integrated. A BIG whisky, but really balanced. Big mineral notes, wet slate, crushed rocks, chalky, lime citrus again. Salty with water.
Finish: Long! length. Really blows up, BIG big mineral notes really kick up, big smoke and lots of malty malt.
Bourbon Barrel 42, distilled 21/02/2007, bottled 20/06/2016 as an exclusive. Wow. Really dig these really big but balanced whiskies. Well selected Hans!
86/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #334-#335
Whisky Network Reviews #370-#371

Network Average: 74.4
Best Score: 92
Worst Score: 44
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. 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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