Kilkerran 8 Year Old Sherry Casks (2022 Release)

Kilkerran 8 Year Old Sherry Casks (2022 Release)

Region: Campbeltown

ABV: 58.1%

Price: £48

This release was matured for 8 years in Oloroso sherry casks.

Nose

We’re met with a very heavy vegetal sherry note, it’s rich and intense, but not sweet. We’re getting old leather, warehouse must, wet cardboard and dried mushrooms. There’s quite a lot of rancio, along with dates, maybe some prunes which have been reduced down on the hob, and some lightly roasted coffee beans. We’re also getting the expected smoke, but it’s not overpowering, more like ash covered smoked fruits and maybe a little tar too. You do get the alcohol on the nose but like the smoke, it’s also not overpowering.

Palate

Sour grape juice as it hits our tongue initially, there’s a real spice that dances around the mouth. This is fairly hot, more than we were expecting from the nose. It’s quite a dry dram, we’re getting more of that leather and earth. Behind that there’s some cherries, maybe a cherry jam, along with a fair amount of cinnamon… we’re reminded of Big Red cinnamon flavoured chewing gum. As we go back we’re getting some dark chocolate and cardamom. It’s not bad but we’re finding it hard to get past the alcohol here, maybe some water will help…

Nose (with water)

It’s opened up and giving us some cereal notes along with fresh plums. We’re getting a much creamier nose now, along with the rich aromas reminds us of chocolate mousse. With more time we’re getting a really nice blend of cream, coffee, chocolate and sponge reminiscent of a tiramisu. There’s a light saltiness that’s appeared too, maybe salted caramel?

Palate (with water)

We’re greeted again with that spice when it hits the tongue, along with the sour notes we had before. It seems richer with water, we’re getting even darker chocolate, well done bacon and burnt wood chippings. Again, it’s very dry, more of the mushroom and now overly roasted coffee beans. The smoke is there, sort of, but it’s masked by the dried fruits and earthy, vegetal flavours. The finish has a good length but for us it’s still a bit too alcohol forward.

Conclusion

This is our second time trying this whisky - the first time we got hit around the head with some unpleasant sulphur notes which may have been influenced by some of the drams we had prior. The notes above are from a fresh palate, and it’s much nicer than before. It is rich, earthy and dry, but we can’t seem to get past the alcohol even after adding water. For us it’s not our favourite of the recently released bunch of Cambeltown bottles, and we think the port cask Kilkerran is more to our tastes. Saying that, if you like the sound of the tasting notes, this is a solid dram at a great price (if you could find it at RRP!).

We’ve reviewed a fair few Kilkerran releases now and because our scale takes in to consideration price you’ll find several of these have been given the same score. If you’re interested the below is a list of the bottles in order of preference ignoring price.

1. Kilkerran 8 year old (Batch 4 - re-charred oloroso sherry casks)
2. Cadenheads Kilkerran 12 (57.8%)
3. Kilkerran 8 Port Casks (2022)
4. Kilkerran Online Tasting Week 2021 5 year old
5. Kilkerran 8 Sherry Casks (2022)
6. Kilkerran 12 year old

We’re currently in the process of picking bottles for the 2nd release of our dram club, if you’d be interested in seeing this included please leave a comment or send us a message.

Score: 7/10

• 10 - Perfection. A whisky that we’ll remember forever.
• 9 - Amazing. We’d pay through the nose for a bottle.
• 8 - Great. Pick this up at RRP.
• 7 - Good. Happy to have a dram or two but wouldn’t buy a bottle.
• 6 - Passable. Would accept a dram, but wouldn’t seek it out.
• 5 - Poor. Would drink if it was the only option.
• 4 - Bad. Maybe it can be saved by ginger beer?
• 3 - Awful. It can't be saved by ginger beer.
• 2 - Pour it out
• 1 - We’ve never tried a whisky rated this low and hopefully never will.

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