Appearance
Very light in colour, white wine like, the swirl line is thin-ish, and gives an all over glass coat and eventually several thick legs.
Nose
Wow, that’s some nose, I took a big nose full and it’s made my eyes water. First thing I notice is it’s marriage, everything here is so nicely woven together. This actually makes it more difficult to get separate aromas.
The first aroma I can make out is perfume/floral, and just beyond that the peat is patiently waiting. An oil aroma is next, linseed oil, the oil that would sit atop the old style putty in a can of it hadn’t been used for some time. The hot mash potato I get now and then is also here, with just a small amount of mince sauce and boiled bacon.
More time and the nose is definitely becoming fruitier, with a dustiness. It’s a mix of green grapes, seared pineapple and darker fruits, and I’m thinking rose water too.
Palate
The mouthfeel on this dram is decent, not oily but not watery either, and jeez it’s a spice bomb, phew. It explodes on the palate, with molasses, rum, dark chocolate, raisins, cloves, black peppercorns, cumin, and the peat is almost actually a little restrained here in my humble opinion, everything else is flooding it at the moment.
Waiting further, and to be honest, it’s more of the same, lashings of them. Chocolate digestives and Black Forest gateau all day long. The spices continue too, it all mixes very nicely with the peat.
Finish
The finish is quite long, and continues to spicy with flavours much like the bulk of the palate. There’s so much flavour here that it doesn’t really develop, it blasts its way through to the end.
My thoughts
It’s been a while since iv’e tasted a dram from Kilkerran, and past experiences with their whiskies have been very positive for me. Getting the chance to try a distillery exclusive bottling is also very exciting, they are their showcase casks i suppose.
Well, this bottle is another top dram from the Glengyle distillery. There’s just so much to enjoy aroma and flavour wise, and to be honest i could have taken more notes for it, they threw themselves at me. One of the things that i really enjoyed about this dram is the marriage of the flavours, it’s literally the sum of its parts, it comes as a complete package.
I can see why whisky folk love Kilkerran bottlings, they are rather good, and this is another from them that i’d be very happy to have in my whisky cupboard.
Bottle image courtesy of – @whiskeychap.
A big thank you goes out to Barry – @whiskeychap, my Whiskey Chaps partner in crime, for this super sample. Please do give us a follow on Twitter using the buttons below.
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