Billy from the Whisky Exchange

 

The full line-up

In June we had a special guest to lead the tasting. Billy Abbot from top spirits retailer the Whisky Exchange was with us to guide us through half a dozen choices, (mostly) still available to buy.

Linkwood 10yo

And we kicked us off with an expression from the Whisky Exchange's line-up of Seasons drams. Representing 'Spring' we had a 10-year-old Linkwood, matured in a single refill bourbon cask.

Billy told us the Spring whiskies are aimed at showing off fresh, fruity and zingy flavours. This one delivered, and gave us pears, citrus fruits, a hint of mint and fruity chewing gum. There wasn't much oak in evidence really, giving the spirit itself a chance to come through nicely, and strongly.

Very summery and easy to drink, we thought, ideal to have with a barbecue. It was 57.7% and cost a very reasonable £68.

BBR Macduff 21yo

For the second dram we went to Berry Brothers and Rudd, the legendary London wines and spirits retailer and regular bottler of quality drams. This was a 21-year-old Macduff, matured in a sherry butt.

"Taste the distillery, not the wood" urged Billy, and this tasted stronger than whisky number one, as well it might have done at 58%. This was lovely, really good, with strong notes of pineapple and tropical fruit. Some members thought it was better with a little water. It cost £169.

Ben Nevis

Billy himself was looking back at us from the label of whisky number three. This was part of a series of bottles produced for the Whisky Show, run by the Whisky Exchange, featuring various members of the WE team.

Ben Nevis, owned by Nikka in Japan, is a popular distillery with club members. This was an example of a 'dirty Ben Nevis' we felt, all chewy and tasty with lots of red fruits in evidence. It was 60.2% and cost again a very fair £72.

After a half-time break giving us the chance to recharge our glasses downstairs at the Seven Oaks, we were back for another trio.

Whistlepig 13yo

Dram four was in fact a rye whiskey, from Whistlepig, and for Billy was "the most ridiculous thing we've bottled at the Whisky Exchange." Rather than from Whistlepig's Vermont base, this Amburana Rye was made in Indiana by spirits giant MGP, and was a mix of 95% rye to 5% malted barley, aged for more than 12 years in American oak.

Here's the thing: it didn't really taste like whiskey at all. Very sweet on the nose, it was giving coconut and mint, almost mint choc chip ice cream. It had spent a mere ten days in an amburana cask, a trendy and very aggressive South American wood that imparts flavour on liquid very quickly. This gave it so much flavour, especially on the nose, and it ended up reminding us of liquor chocolates or After Eight mints. Weird in a good way. It was £175 and 43%.

Kilchoman 11yo

Back to Scotland for whisky five and to Islay for some Kilchoman. Billy had picked out an 11-year-old, aged in a first fill ex-bourbon cask and bottled for the 2023 Whisky Show. "This is non-messed with, unadulterated stuff."

At 54.5% this was "not overpowering, just nice." This was smoky and peaty, but more in a subtle barbecue rather than punch in the nose sort of way. It was £140, and so there were perhaps one or two cheaper options from earlier in the night more likely to get us reaching for our virtual wallets.

G&M Caol Ila

We finished off with the very last bottle of something special.

A 19-year-old Caol Ila, so another Islay whisky, bottled by Gordon and Macphail back in 2021. Billy told us when smoky whisky gets older it tends to become more fruity and mellow, and this is a good example. It is apparently unusual to get such an old Caol Ila, as the younger ones tend to be very nice.

This smelt absolutely great. So much so we almost didn't want to taste it. But it was delicious and gave us a huge amount of flavour. It was 57.6% although you can't get it anymore.

Which brought us to the dram of the night voting, and all six secured at least one vote, always the sign of a great tasting. The winner though was the Ben Nevis with ten votes, just ahead of the opening Linkwood in second and then the Caol Ila third.

Our thanks to Billy for visiting us and picking out such a great selection, and to all club members and guests for coming along.

Cask Strength Islay

 

The full line up

For November's tasting we visited one of the club's favourite destinations - Islay - for an evening of cask strength drams from the home of peated whisky.

Untold Richest

With Martin guiding us through the list, we began slightly counter-intuitively, with something unpeated. It was old, 28 years-old in fact, and was a Wemyss Malts Bunnahabhain called Untold Riches. The liquid comes from no fewer than 31 casks, mostly bourbon-aged but with some sherry cask as well.

We wouldn't have pegged this one as an Islay, if we hadn't known. It was chocolatey and spicy with distinctive notes of cereal and oats. Quite spirity too, still quite a lot of life in it despite the age and the 49.1% ABV. Certainly a great way to start the evening. We got our bottle when it was released for the RRP of £150, but these days you'd be lucky to find one at auction for anything less than £325.

Bowmore 15yo

Bowmore was next, another of Islay's great distilleries. We had a Feis Ile bottling, released for the annual Islay festival. This put us immediately in mind of last November's tasting when we had a whole series of festival drams.

The Bowmore was a 15yo released for the 2022 festival, costing £110. And it was clear from the first taste this was something extra special. Bourbon, chocolate and coffee were all over this. Really fruity, with an extra hit of coffee beans again at the end. Lovely all round. It was 54.7%.

Spiritfilled Port Charlotte

October's tasting from Spiritfilled was one bottle short due to the vagaries of the postal service, but the bottle did eventually turn up and slotted into this tasting as whisky number three. 

This was a forthcoming Port Charlotte, a bourbon cask 13 year-old clocking in at 58%. At the time of our tasting, this had a total availability of one! But this will be changing soon as it gets a broader release. This was certainly a very punchy dram, and went down particularly well with those who enjoy the big Islay peat monsters (this is a not insignificant proportion of club members!).  It's £145 for pre-order.

Caol Ila 9yo

After a half-time break, giving everyone the chance to recharge their beer glasses downstairs at the Britons' Protection bar, we were back for the second trio of whiskies.

Next up was a bottling created for the Southport Whisky Club, a 9 year-old Caol Ila. A sherried Caol Ila is a relative rarity which is what caught Martin's eye when he picked it up for us for £75 (there was a discount involved here, we think the bottle itself is probably no longer available).

This had a high ABV of 57.9% but was nevertheless very smooth. In fact it was "surprisingly chill" as someone put it. Very peaty as well, of course, with some ripe bananas at the end. This got the nod as being a "quintessential Islay", a classical sort of dram and a great example of the combination of sherry and peat.

Lagavulin

Lagavulin was dram number five. On this occasion, a no age statement bottling from 2018, consisting of a vatting of two types of cask, a heavily charred refill bourbon and an American oak.

This didn't feel like a Lagavulin to us, although "it is Laggy adjacent" as someone suggested. A really good dram, with more of a subtle sweetness than you'd expect from the distillery. A little bit muted even, but not in a bad way at all. There was something creamy about it too. It was £100 and came in at 53.5%

Kilchoman

The final dram of the night involved a visit to Islay's farm distillery, Kilchoman, and a bottle created especially for Robertson's of Pitlochry, a notable independent whisky retailer. This was a single cask whisky, aged in a refilled bourbon barrel from Woodford Reserve, then finished for a year in a French oak tequila barrel. It was £90 and 54%.

This was lovely on the nose, and in fact some thought the palate didn't quite live up to the promise. Sweet and fruity, there were mixed views on whether the tequila really added anything much to the mix here. American cream soda was another tasting note.

That brought us to the dram of the night voting, and the Bowmore ran out a clear winner with 15 votes, ahead of the Spiritfilled Port Charlotte in second place.

Thanks to Martin for selecting and presenting such a great range of Islay whiskies, to all at the Britons for hosting us again, and to club members old and new for joining us to take part.

Mythical Beasts From Spiritfilled

 

The evening's line up

For October's meeting of the Manchester Whisky Club, we were treated to our first brand tasting since the pandemic. Ross and Russell from cask broker and independent bottler Spiritfilled were on hand to share their story so far, and to allow us to try some of the expressions they've released under their Mythical Beasts label.

Ardlair 11yo

We had four to try (the fifth, a forthcoming Port Charlotte, was delayed in the post, but we're looking forward to having it next month instead). 

The opening dram was an Ardlair. Not a name that is seen all that often - it is in fact an unpeated Ardmore, a Highland distillery best known as the key component of the Teacher's blend. An 11-year-old, this was finished for the last 18 months in a PX sherry cask.

And at 53.5% it was certainly a bit fiery. "Don't be afraid to add water" was some early advice. We got green apples on the nose, then pears and toffee apples when it was tasted, so a good dram for the time of year. The finish was quite long as well, and citrussy. Very flavourful all round, you certainly know you've tasted it. It was dry too, almost like a dry white wine as someone suggested. It's £68. Not bad value for a whisky with plenty going on.

Glenrothes 15yo

More sherry next, in the shape of a Glenrothes. This spent the full 15 years in a first fill sherry butt. A Speyside, Glenrothes also has a long association with a particular blend, in this cask Cutty Sark.

Ross and Russell said this tasted so big out of the cask, they had to "bring it down a bit" to 55% before bottling. This had chewy sweets (like Fruit Salad) and ginger biscuits on the nose, and a bit of vanilla too. On taking a sip, this was thick and unctuous, with dates and fruitcake. Very Christmassy. Some water brought out some orangey notes as well. It's £120.

After a short break to recharge our glasses downstairs at the Britons Protection, we were back for dram three and the most expensive bottle - at time of purchasing - we've ever had, in almost ten years of the club.

Fettercairn 32yo

It was a 32-year-old Fettercairn, bottled from a cask which had been held by a Birmingham woman all that time. It went into an ex-Bourbon hogshead in July 1989, when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister, the Berlin Wall was still standing, and Soul II Soul were at number 1. Just 98 bottles exist and we had two of them in the room, and at £425 a pop that's some seriously valuable liquid.

The distillery itself is officially considered a Highland, although in reality the village from which it takes its name is just a short distance from the North Sea.

On the nose we got some rich, dried, fruit, like raisins and apricots. It was sweet to taste, and there was a very pleasant maltiness about it. This was very special to try and we liked it a lot although, sad to say, it was more than a little out of reach in terms of price. It's 48.6%.

Kilchoman 15yo

That brought us to the last dram of the evening and a visit to the Islay distillery of Kilchoman. A small, independent, farm-style distillery, Kilchoman is a real favourite of club members.

This particular Mythical Beasts expression was a 15-year-old private cask release, which spent its entire maturation in a bourbon cask. A little bit of pepper and spice on the nose, and then when tasted a lovely, subtle peated flavour with some vanilla too. I thought this was particularly outstanding (although as we'll see, the membership as a whole had a different favourite). Although at £190 again it's one to push the boat out for. The ABV is 55.5%.

So that brought us to the dram of the night voting, and all four whiskies gained some support from the members in the room. The Kilchoman, in fourth place, still had six votes. But the winner was that sherry bomb Glenrothes, with ten.

Special thanks to Ross and Russell for bringing us such a special selection of whiskies and telling us all about a business that is already going from strength to strength (having been founded in - of all times to do it - March 2020). Thanks also to club members old and new for joining us, and the Britons for hosting us once again.

Bang For Your Buck

This month's line up

For May's tasting, there was a welcome return for Anna who presented a line up of best 'bang for your buck' whiskies currently on the market, a timely tasting considering not only the cost of living crisis, but also the general inflationary pressures on whisky prices too. Anna was out to show us that there remains all kinds of great stuff out there at reasonable prices if you know where to look.

Compass Box

Most of the drinks came from independent bottlers, and dram number one was the work of one of the club's favourites, Compass Box, the London-based blender and bottler. We were drinking Orchard House, a blend (of which the biggest component was Clynelish) with a definite fruit and apple vibe from the label onwards.

There was no doubt about the apple straight from the nose, green apples especially. We also got some peanut butter, and perhaps a faint bit of smoke on the palate, too. The finish was nice and long. It's 46% and you can pick it up for about £41 from the usual online retailers. 

Kilchoman SB3

Dram number two took us to Islay and Kilchoman, and a small batch distillery bottling. It's number three in Kilchoman's small batch series, and features a combination of bourbon and Oloroso aged Kilchoman, along with some much stronger Sauternes cask, to create a bottling at 49.1%.

This was sweet before it got peaty. Apples again and other sweet notes, making for a lovely combination with the smoke which grew on the palate. "I'd buy that" said more than one club member. It's £52. Cheap at the price, we felt.

Petrichor Galore

Back to the indie bottlers for dram three, and a whisky from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. This one was called Petrichor Galore (petrichor being the smell of rain, a new one on me!) and was bottle 63.81, the 63 standing for Glentauchers.

This was intense and "sherry tastic" with toffee another tasting note that we got. "This makes me violently happy" someone said. As well it might, at just £53.20 (for members, and sadly it's all since gone), it was an extremely strong 66.3%. Great value as well as being an excellent drop. Not sure about the smell of rain, though.

IF Knockdhu

After a half-time break to recharge our beer glasses downstairs at the Britons Protection, we returned for whisky four. The indie bottler this time was Infrequent Flyers, a brand run by ex-BenRiach man Alistair Walker, which aims to showcase some rarer single malts at affordable prices. On this occasion it was a Knockdhu, a Speyside distillery which normally produces whisky under the name anCnoc to avoid confusion with Knockando up the road.

Another superb drink, this. Lots of marzipan and almond as the key tasting notes. A really easy drinker, too, remarkable considering its strength of 58.9% (so perhaps we should reclassify it as a 'dangerously' easy drinker). It's £52.90.

North Star Chaos

As a measure of how strong the last two were, there was a bit of surprise that whisky number five was "only" 50%! A North Star bottling from its Chaos range, asking the question 'do port and peat go well together?' being an Islay whisky mostly aged in ruby port octaves.

It's assumed the liquid in this bottling is a Caol Ila, but as someone commented, "if it's a Caol Ila, the delivery van has crashed with an Ardbeg". This was very floral, and savoury. Again great value at £50.

Highland Laird

All too soon it was the last dram of the night, and bottling under name Highland Laird, owned by family-run bottler Bartels. This was a 9-year-old Macduff with plenty of big strength again, at 65.4%. The colour was particularly notable, it was fully matured in first fill sherry casks.

This was another superb whisky, and there were lots of phones out to buy a bottle (including mine) at the excellent price of £48. There are still some available, too, so it's well worth getting one before they're all gone. As a sidenote, after the bottle I ordered went walkabout after an issue with the courier, full marks to Bartels for sending me another! Great customer service and a business well worth supporting.

There was plenty of support for the Highland Laird in the dram of the night voting, but it narrowly lost a three-way battle with the Knockdhu and - this month's winner - the SMWS Glentauchers.

Thanks to Anna for such a great selection of whiskies, and to all club members and their guests for attending another successful tasting. And, as ever, thanks to the Britons for hosting us so well once again.

There they all are

In Vino Veritas... Or Is There?

What, no whisky?

At the end of an unseasonal week of warm February weather, we had an unusual line-up of drinks on arriving for the latest Manchester Whisky Club tasting. In fact, there wasn't any whisky in our glasses at all, at least not until half-time.

The wines went down well.

Long-time club member Nick, who works for Reserve Wines, had laid on a two-part tasting for us. To begin with, five wines. And then, whiskies finished in casks that previously held those wines, or at least very similar ones (if we'd found bottles of the actual wines to drink the club membership would probably be paying it off all year).

We tried all the wines blind allowing Nick to do a bit of a dual reveal once we were knocking into the whiskies. But we tasted the whiskies in a different order from the wines (that is, whisky number one didn't match the opening wine, and so on). So for the purposes of this blog I'll write about each pair of drinks in whisky order.

The Linkwood.

The first whisky was noticeably dark in colour and had a bit of dark chocolate or chocolate orange about it. It turned out to be 16yo Linkwood from the Gordon and Macphail Private Collection that spent 23 months in Cote Rotie wine casks. We bought back in 2016 for about £60 (good luck finding it for anything like that, or even finding it all, today).

Nick's chosen closely matching wine was in fact the third one we tried earlier in the evening. It was a bit plummy, very dry on the palate, with an intense acidity about it, almost like Vimto. It was £13 and is a Syrah from Chile's Tabali vineyard.

The English.

The second whisky had a big taste about it, and it was no surprise really when Nick revealed we were drinking an 11yo from the English Whisky Company, aged in totality in Portuguese Cabernet Sauvignon casks. We liked this, although overall the room seemed to slightly favour number one. This is the oldest release from the EWC so far, and is available under their The English branding, at 46% and £55.

The wine was an Argentinian Cabernet Sauvignon that we'd tried fourth. It was a bit more challenging than the earlier wines we'd had, with a certain spiciness and a lot more oak. A heavy and full-bodied drink, it's from the Felino company in the wine-making province of Mendoza.

The Benromach.

Next we were in Speyside for a Benromach, finished in Sassicaia (my notes, getting increasingly hazy by this point, have this written as 'sassy-something' which I suppose is a fair enough effort). It's an 8yo aged for the last two years in the wine casks, available for a decent £45.

The wine was a bit of a curveball as it was not exactly the same, Sassicaia being a bit on the pricey side to say the very least. Instead, we had a Beyra Vinhos de Altitude wine from Portugal, featuring two or three different grapes. This was the freshest of the three reds we had and, Nick assured us, was a decent impersonation of Sassicaia at a much more affordable price.

The Glen Moray.

The fourth whisky we drank smelt very strong indeed. Given that this is often the point of a tasting when we hit the cask strength stuff this wasn't exactly unexpected, but even by those standards this had a really powerful nose. It tasted strong too. The good news about the whisky is that it's just £50, the bad is that you have to go to the Glen Moray distillery to actually get some. It's one of their bottle-your-own efforts, a 12yo with full maturation in Chardonnay.

The matching wine was number one, a Chardonnay from the Felino vineyard in Argentina's famous wine region of Mendoza province. It had a certain citrussy sweetness - think pineapples and limes - with some more acidic notes and a bit of oak.

By the tenth drink of the night, which was what we had reached by this stage, the only tasting note I managed to note down was: "Are we still going? This is almost certainly incredible". Photographic evidence indicates it was a Kilchoman with a Sauternes cask finish, and it had plenty of peat about it, naturally enough.

The Sauternes we'd had earlier in the evening, wine number five, absolutely split opinion. A dessert wine, some loved it and some didn't. It certainly had plenty of honey about it, a sort of buttery sweetness. It was a 2010 Chateau Jany.

After certainly the most international tasting we've ever run, all of the whiskies got at least some votes in the dram of the night contest. But it was the fill-your-own cask strength monster from Glen Moray, number four, which came out on top. And the winning wine was the Sauternes! But then I suppose that's what happens when you operate a first past the post voting policy.

All our thanks go to Nick for laying on a fabulous tasting, to all club members for putting in another excellent turnout and to everyone at the Britons for hosting us once again.

The full line-up.

Cask Mania

This month's line up.

For May's meeting of Manchester Whisky Club we were treated to a selection of whiskies picked out by Anna and presented to the group by Martin, on the theme of cask mania - putting the spotlight on drams matured in a wide variety of different cask types.

Cask maturation is one of the most influential processes that define the taste of any whisky. The wood of each cask adds complex flavours to the character of the particular distillery already present in the new make spirit. And using different casks can make things very interesting.

The Carn Mor Glen Garioch 6yo.

We started off the evening in the north east of Scotland with a whisky from the Glen Garioch distillery, bottled by the independent Carn Mor. It was a 6-year-old matured in a sherry puncheon, with an ABV of 46%.

And what a great start to the tasting it was. Very rich, dark and sweet, while some drinkers picked out aniseed and liquorice on the palate as well. Quite oily, quite heavy (even "chewy") and with that distinctive sherry flavour, perhaps one better suited to a winter's night rather than a very warm May evening. But at just under £40 we thought this was excellent value.

SMWS Full of Vim and Vigour

After that crowd pleaser we moved on to a bottle from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, the subjects of last month's tasting. This particular dram, Full of Vim and Vigour, was from the Glen Moray distillery in Elgin. It was matured in a first fill French wine barrique (these are also known as 'Bordeaux barrels') and really took things up a notch in terms of strength, at 61.5%.

As ever for SMWS bottlings there was an array of unusual tasting notes on the label, and some of us thought that pineapple fritters was actually pretty close to the mark with this one. It was a little on the strong side for some - "almost bourbony it's got so much oak on it" - but in general people really liked it, in particular after a drop of water when it became sweeter. At £51.40 to Society members, again this was something of a bargain.

Starward 10th Anniversary bottling.

We went much further afield for whisky number three. In fact, about as far away from Scotland as it's possible to get in the world of whisky, as we tried a bottle from the Starward distillery in Melbourne. Not just any bottling this, but a special 10th anniversary expression to celebrate a decade of operation. With some recent investment from Diageo, Starward has grown from being a tiny craft distillery into being a still-quite-small craft distillery, now operating from slightly larger premises than before.

Anyway, how about the whisky? Well, this was created from a mixture of the eight cask types used across the company's short history, with 28 casks of different ages used in all, focusing on those previously used for Australian wine and fortified wine. It's a no age statement whisky coming in at 52% and, perhaps surprisingly given the complexity involved, just £80. And this really was quite something. Rich and woody, with a touch of the chemistry classroom on the nose and some pepper on the palate. If anything, there was maybe a bit much going on here for some drinkers, but a lot of people in the room completely loved it.

Chichibu IPA Cask.

After a half-time break we were back for the fourth whisky and this time we were in Japan for an Ichiro's Malt Chichibu finished in IPA beer casks from a local craft brewer. This kind of finish has, in the past, been considered somewhat disappointing when tried elsewhere. But we were led to believe this would be an exception.

And so it was! There was no disputing the IPA finish, this was quite a dry whisky on the palate with malt loaf one of the suggestions for a tasting note, and custard another. This divided the room a bit though, with some very much enjoying it and others, while appreciating it, saying that it just wasn't for them. It's 57.5% and if you can find a bottle, it'll cost you £145. In truth there were probably some better value whiskies elsewhere in the line-up.

G&M Connoisseur's Choice Caol Ila

It was back to Elgin for the fifth whisky, and our old friends from that famous bottler Gordon and Macphail. This time they were working their magic on an Islay whisky in the form of a 13yo Caol Ila, released as part of their Connoisseur's Choice range (now sporting some new-look packaging). This 45% whisky spent the last three years of its maturation in Hermitage wine casks.

Again this divided opinion a little. On the one hand we picked up some lovely notes of barbecue and wine gums, but for others this was the least favourite of the evening. It's £70.

Kilchoman Port Cask 2014

Another Islay whisky rounded off the tasting, and it was a Kilchoman which had a distinctive reddish colour, betraying the fact it had spent its full maturation in port hogsheads. Admittedly, they'd only been in there since 2014, making it a three or four year old only. But apparently when the port casks turned up later than expected, the distillery workers were in such a hurry to get them filled they didn't realise until later that there was still a bit of port lurking in the bottom of the casks. So that certainly helped account for the unusual colour.

"Have you ever seen red diesel?" someone asked as we got down to tasting. As with drams four and five, this got mixed reviews. Creamy in a cream soda sort of way, but with a surprisingly short finish, this was possibly a case of high expectations not quite being met rather than it being a particularly mediocre whisky. It's 50% and costs £77.

So that brought us to the dram of the night voting. And while a few had their supporters, there was a convincing victory in the end for whisky number three - the Starward from Australia. Strewth!

Thank you to all club members and guests from the waiting list who joined us, both old and new, for another successful tasting, and thanks also to all the staff at the Britons Protection for looking after us once again. We're already looking forward to June's tasting, which will be all about some great blends.

The Islay Farm Distillery

This month we welcomed George Wills from Kilchoman to tell us more about the youngest distillery on the Isle of Islay.

One of three brothers, his father Anthony founded the distillery in 2005. The eldest of the three, he's really lucked out coming to talk to us in Manchester while his unfortunate brothers have been shipped off to two awkward corners of the world (New York and Hawaii) to do similar tastings. It really does pay to be the firstborn sometimes...

Kilchoman was founded with the goal of being small and artisanal. Based at Rockside farm on the Rhinns, just north of the Bruichladdich distillery, they're the only distillery on the island that isn't directly by the sea. In their small mash tun, stills, malting floor and kiln they produce very small batches of whisky at a time and fill around 20 bourbon casks per week, occasionally filling into other cask types. At this pace, they manage about 160,000 litres per year.

Manchester - who'd want to be anywhere else?

Generally Kilchoman release 35-40% of their stock each year, usually when it's around 5 years old. They then keep the rest to age further, except for around 10% of their annual production which is used to experiment with.

They only ever buy fresh casks with the bourbons all coming from Buffalo Trace. They arrive still assembled, often still damp with even a little bit of bourbon left in the bottom. All the refills they use are their own refills.

Coming up to ten years old this year, they do plan on releasing a 10 year old. However, in 2005, their first year, they only filled 7 casks so they're not quite ready just yet for that milestone. Perhaps next year... George tells us they'll do a seven year old soon, and a Madeira cask finish as well - exciting!

Our evening's glorious line-up

Kilchoman 100% Islay 4th Edition

Up first is the 100% Islay 4th edition. The barley is grown, malted, smoked, mashed, distilled, matured, and bottled  at the farm and they grow 100 tons of optic barley per year just for this annual release. Bottled at 50% and matured exclusively in 1st fill buffalo trace bourbon, this one's a light and floral introduction to the range with a lighter peating level than the others in the line-up.

Nose: Sweet vanilla, spring blossoms, wax crayons. Earthy, like the smell you get with fresh soil while gardening. Slightly nutty.
Palate: Sweet grassy barley, lots of vanilla with salty earth and dry vegetal peat.
Finish: A little waxy with smoky ashes.

Kilchoman Machir Bay 2014

Second in the line-up is Machir Bay 2014. This one's made with barley from Diageo's Port Ellen maltings, produced at a similar spec to Ardbeg. 90% of the whisky is matured in Bourbon, and 10% in Oloroso, which are then vatted together and bottled at 46% ABV.

Nose: Wafts of citrus, with sea breeze and sweet barley. Rock dust and linen.
Palate: Sweet vanilla and lemon candy, dry peat, barley sugar and a little mint.
Finish: Gentle oak with a tingle of peat. Drying.

Kilchoman Loch Gorm 2015

Now here's a treat! The brand-new Loch Gorm 2015, released just this week. This is a full maturation in Oloroso Sherry hogsheads (not butts). It's not overpoweringly sweet, and has a lot of interesting savoury notes coming through.

Nose: Rubber shoe soles, struck matches, sultanas, glace cherries, custard powder, salted nuts, dry dusty earth.
Palate: Peated salty syrup with sweet barley malt, plums and figs, a little dark chocolate, leading to herbal oregano and peppercorns.
Finish: Spicy clove with lime juice. More delicious dry peat, quite sticky this time.

Kilchoman Original Cask Strength

After a short break, we move onto the cask strength section of our tasting, starting with the Original Cask Strength. This was released October 2014 round about the time of the London Whisky Show. A limited release, this was produced with 35 fresh first fill Bourbon casks and bottled aged five years.

Nose: Wood spice, candy, liqourice, hay, farmyard, salty rocks, herby vegetation and dry straw.
Palate: Oily and sweet. Vanilla, peated custard with cinnamon. A little bit of seaweed. Peat rises to become salty and dry.
Finish: Long and warming with savoury smoke, oak, and salt.

Kilchoman Port Cask Matured

Now this is a really interesting one... A Kilchoman matured for three years in a Ruby Port Cask. The distillery started with 20 fresh 1st-fill port casks and filled them with spirit straight away to capture the flavour.  At 3 years old they decided to release it because the port was having such a strong influence on the whisky. Any longer and it'd have looked like Ribena! The colour after 3 years is already pretty fantastic...

This was released last year and sold out very quickly indeed. We're very lucky tonight because this isn't the official 55% release. George managed to get a full cask strength sample at 59%!

Nose: Smoked cheese with brandied cherries. Musty dunnage warehouse. Barley grain.
Palate: Fizzy sour strawberry laces, with tart raspberry, soft grape, and a Lapsang Souchoung smoke running through.
Finish: Drying with chewy peat and savoury oak.

Kilchoman Cask Sample Oloroso 2009

And now the piece de resistance, a single cask Kilchoman from a 1st fill Oloroso sherry butt. Distilled in 2009, and bottled at a cask strength of 59.2% ABV. This particular release will be released in Belgium but there'll be a very similar one in the UK soon so keep your eyes peeled.

Nose: Sesame seed, caramel wafers, coal tar, plasticine, marzipan, plum sauce.
Palate: Sweet and syrupy with tangy cough drops, cola, orange zest, and tingly sour smoke.
Finish: Long and smoky with plenty of earth and tar. Reminiscent of Ardbeg.

Staggeringly good for a 5 year old. This one really made the night for a lot of the club members. Wow!


What a brilliant tasting. Thanks so much to George Wills and the Kilchoman distillery for coming down to Manchester and sharing such beautiful whisky with us. It'll be lovely to see just how much this already delicious whisky improves over time...