Kilkerran 17 Open Day 2023 & Kilkerran Heavily Peated Batch 8

Kilkerran 17 Open Day 2023

Region: Campbeltown

ABV: 57.5%

Price: £95.00

The 2023 Glengyle open day bottle is a triple distilled 17 year old that was matured in bourbon casks.

Nose

Creamy vanilla custard, it’s almost grain-like in its initial aroma, then it moves into tinned pineapple, apple tart tatain, warehouse must, sponge fingers and creme brulee. Super sweet, super creamy. We’re also finding rice krispies and lime cordial. The nose might be slightly one dimensional, but they’ve picked the right dimension to have.

Palate

The palate begins right where the nose left off, creamy vanilla custard, grain-like sweetness, creme caramel, candyfloss, brown sugar, again super sweet and super creamy. It’s warming, there’s a subtle alcohol spice that keeps you interested. The mouthfeel is.. creamy.. we need to find a new word for this lovely texture. The finish lingers for a good while, leaving you with freshly scraped vanilla pods and white chocolate buttons as you inhale. Time and air reveals a touch of sea salt, wet pebbles and dry oak as the palate develops.

Nose (with water)

Reduction brings out more of a mature grain aroma, sweet oak, caramel, and some of those previous lighter sugary notes have gotten darker. We’re also getting buttercream frosting and white chocolate again.

Palate (with water)

The reduced palate maintains the creamy mouthfeel, but we’re finding a zestiness, a mixture of lemon and lime zest, then straight back into sponge cake and vanilla custard. It’s like a tiramisu without the coffee. It’s quite easy to drink with or without water, so it’s down to your preference.

Conclusion

We could nose this all day. Is there such a thing as a “bourbon bomb”? For those who were lucky enough to try the single cask from the Springbank warehouse tasting, this falls a little short, but is still quite excellent. The alcohol is well balanced and it’s one we could happily go back to over the course of an evening. It’s maybe a little too simple, but we still really enjoyed it.

Score: 8/10

Value

£95 for a 17yo cask strength release is very reasonable. It’s a no brainer at RRP.

 Kilkerran Heavily Peated Batch 8

Region: Campbeltown

ABV: 58.4%

Price: £47.00

Batch #8 of Kilkerran Heavily Peated has a cask make-up of 90% bourbon casks and 10% Sherry casks. No details on the age of this are available.

Nose

We’re greeted with a smack of peat, kerosene, charred lemon, candied pecans, dunnage warehouse dirt, with a meaty, roasted chicken-like aroma. It’s not as sweet as we expected, however there are some notes of fondant icing, maple glazed ribs and a touch of honey too. The alcohol is present but not overpowering, and we’re not finding anything that would signal that it’s overly young.

Palate

The palate opens with freshly turned earth, coal smoke, vanilla frosting and a slight lemon-sourness too. It has a reasonable mouthfeel, not thin, but not particularly thick, with sugar syrup and french pastries appearing as the dram develops on your tongue. It doesn’t feel 58%, we could quite easily drink through this quicker than we should.. similar to the nose it doesn’t taste particularly young, we’d guesstimate around 8-10 years old. The dram has a medium to long length finish with ginger spice and salted cod.

Nose (with water)

A few drops of water brings out a herbal, rosemary/thyme aroma, alongside more of the bourbon cask sweetness. The peat sits behind this now, although is still very prominent. It’s a bit dustier, and we’re also finding some fresh citrus appearing too.

Palate (with water)

The reduced palate has a touch more sweetness, icing sugar, candied lemon peel, lemonade, but develops quickly into a drier, earthier peat smoke on the finish. The mouthfeel and finish both remain pretty similar to the unreduced palate, but we do get a note of juniper coming through too.

Conclusion

A solid peated dram from an underrated Campbeltown distillery. One that goes down a bit too easily, but still has some interesting notes. We’d suggest adding a few drops of water as it opens the dram up a bit. Good quality whisky.

Score: 7.5/10

Value

It’s £45 for a tasty, heavily peated dram. Hard to beat in our opinion. We bought two.

• 10 - Perfection. One in a million
• 9 - Outstanding. Exceptional whisky.
• 8 - Great. Would seek this out.
• 7 - Good. Quality whisky.
• 6 - Above average. Happy to have a dram.
• 5 - Average. Drinkable whisky.
• 4 - Below average. Passable.
• 3 - Flawed. Noticeable negatives.
• 2 - Defective. Significant faults.
• 1 - Offensive. Pour it out.

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