Thanks to the great folks over at Arrowine.com, I attended a wonderful weekend whiskey tasting hosted by the Kilchoman distillery - the most recent on Islay (2005). I greatly enjoyed their Machir Bay and 100% Islay bottlings, and as soon as I heard the word "Kilchoman," I eagerly signed up.
The tasting was a fantastic expereince - I sat in a small room at RIS without about a dozen other Scotch drinkers, and sampled 7 drams of excellent whiskey. At the end of the day I was given a Glencairn glass with the Kilchoman logo, and a great T-shirt with the Kilchoman 2016 East Coast Tour information on it. Kilchoman has made themselves a fan (not from swag, but from excellent whisky).
Here is what I had, accompanied by brief notes:
100% Islay (6th edition): Extremely good. It was a beautifully balanced whisky. The first of the night, it had multiple layers - each of which was very well executed. Buffalo Trace barrels filled in 2010 and bottled in 2016, the whisky was hot (young), but also tremendously flavorful. What's so interesting about Kilchoman is that the whisky is young but doesn't taste it - the flavor is just so rich and dense that you'd assume you were trying a 12-15 year-old whisky. 100% Islay (6th Edition) is like that. Huge nose of peat and vanilla resolve into a silky mouthfeel of malt, subtly impacted by lightly toasted bread and oak tannins. The peat washes out any harshness, and the finish is beautifully transparent smoke that trails for days after the rush of the alcohol recedes. A wonderful dram.
Sanaig - made with minority ex-bourbon barrels, with a very strong sherry influence in former oloroso casks. The sample was so excellent, a real balance between the rich red fruit of sherry (raisins, plums, syrup, strawberries, etc) and the dry oak bourbon experience (vanilla, wood, green raisins, crispness).
Machir Bay (cask strength) - Just incredibly good. Ex-bourbon dominated, with sherry influence. Less than 1000 (840, to be exact) bottles produced. Incredible dram. Gives anything the Big Boys make (Ardbeg, Laphroaig, Lagavulin, etc.) a run for their money. Rich, so rich, strong, smokey but not overpowering - the peat is perfectly in harmony with the sweet bourbon influence. Vanilla and dry oak combine with very light sherry fruit and reigned-in peat to make a nicely balanced end result whisky. Nothing is out of sync.
PX Finish - A wonderful whisky. Thick, powerful, syrupy raisins fill in the back end of a beautifully balanced dram. The Pedro Ximenez sherry imparts a real richness that is palpable across every part of the the swallow. Thick, viscous, heady. A great whisky.
Sauterne Finish - A really rich, great pour. This might have been my overall favorite, but the rarity and lack of availability pushed it into second place (after the PX Finish). The Sauterne grapes really counteracted all the negative elements the usual ex-bourbon wood brought to play. Dry oak? The Sauterne brought richness and sweetness. Overly vanilla? Teh Sauterne brought green grape dryness, sugar without cloying sweetness. The peat hovered in the background with savory notes of BBQ. Just a wonderful whisky.
Loch Gorm - aged in oloroso sherry butts, very sweet. I bought a whole bottle of Loch Gorm and didn't look back. A beautiful sherry-influenced Scotch, with the typical richness and red fruit subtlety of sherry cask Scotch. The peat masks the bourbon hardness, but a rich plum and apple quality comes through in the body. The finish is both sweet and sour - vanilla and courrant, oak and cranberry. Delicious stuff.
Unaged Whisky - Amazing opportunity. I got to taste the Kilchoman whisky before it entered any barrel. Rich, smokey/hazy, without any of the usual influence, but with a real transparency. Beautiful. A really great experience.
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