Kilchoman PX Finish Single Cask 2016 (Cask #680)

Here is another big winner from last October's Kilchoman tasting. I bought this the moment I tasted it. Hugely rewarding dram, this is a single cask release (as the bottle declares proudly in blood red font) finished in Pedro Ximenez sherry casks. Pedro Ximenez is a very very sweet grape, and results in a extremely sweet sherry. A better explanation than I could provide is found in this review of the same cask release. 

Balcones Texas Single Malt (NAS)

Balcones was sold to me as "Scotch, just made in Waco, Texas." This isn't really that bad of a description... it has all the complexity of a young cask-strength single malt Speyside or Highland, but a certain twang of its own.

This has won more awards than I can shake a stick at. The website advertises Jim Murray as saying this needs "chewing," which is a fantastically accurate word for this. It's a thick, layered whisky with a lot going on, even at nuclear cask strength (which often wipes out any subtlety from a young whisky).

Kilchoman Machir Bay (2016 East Coast Tour Edition)

I acquired a bottle of this rare and lovely whisky after attending Kilchoman's 2016 East Coast Tour - the second-to-last stop was at my favorite DC liquor store, Arrowine. I picked up three different bottles on the tour (the other two will be reviewed in due course), and this bottle was the first I polished off. One of only about 200 bottles made.

Basically, this is their regular Machir Bay presentation, but bottled at cask strength (58.4% abv). No Age Statement, which isn't unusual. Non chill-filtered, no coloring. Distilled in pot still from 100% malted barley, grown on-site, and aged in ex-bourbon (Buffalo Trace) and ex-oloroso sherry barrels. 

Nose: Lovely. Thick smoke mixes with hints of malt, rock candy and/or taffy, and fresh ground pepper. Very very full nose. 

Mouthfeel: Big mouth on this one. Very full, viscous. The cask strength alcohol content probably responsible for some of this, of course. 

Palate: Very mellow, in a surprisingly woodland way - herbal and vegetal, rather than oceanic and briny. Freshcut grass, harvested straw, some indistinct dried herbs, alongside sweet malt, vanilla from the oak, some very subdued red fruit, and of course the smoke - which is, intriguingly, not so big in the mouth as it was on the nose. 

The peat is actually rather tame on the tongue - this one won't leave a campfire on your palate for hours afterward. The sherry influence is in the background, a supporting player, while the bourbon influence is much more forward, but they are fairly balanced in the mix. The high alcohol content never overpowers, although it's a muscular dram, to be sure. 

Finish: Very long. This is where the peat smoke really appears - it gains strength (or, maybe, fails to weaken?) as all the other flavors recede. The final result is smoke wrapped around peppered, honeyed bacon. 

Verdict: A wonderful offering from Kilchoman. Like everything I've had from them, the quality is top notch, the flavor is second to none, and there is a lot of depth paired with a very easy drinkability. I don't know how many bottles of this are still floating around out there - mine was consumed fairly rapidly - but buy it if you can find it. I'll be on the next tour, without any doubt. 

Old Pulteney 12 Year

No one seems to agree about Old Pulteney! It's well-known now that Jim Murray praised this distillery to the skies, and he rated the 21 year expression as best world whiskey in 2012, but every review I read seems different from the last. Some say cinnamon forward, some say salt for days, some say banana, some say none of the above.

Old Pulteney hails from Wick, Scotland - making it a Highland, from the northernmost mainland distillery, as far as I can tell.