Kilchoman 100% Islay 10Yr ScotchGuys20th

Tasting Notes

Evan’s Tasting Note

Nose: Did somebody pour some olive brine in my apple juice? Plenty of apple and pear notes mingling with salty coastal notes. Apple Jacks cereal (milk and all), buttery lobster tail, roasted potato with sour cream, a few pencil shavings, and a dryer sheet tossed in just for fun.

Palate: Surprisingly sweet and creamy, with plenty of salt and brine along for the ride. Chalky assorted fruit Pez candies, lemon custard tarts, strawberry wafers, linguine with clam sauce, and a few strips of roasted seaweed snacks.

Finish: Creamy and salty oatmeal with a touch of apple cider floating along softly in its wake.

Comment: This is the second 10-Year-Old 100% Islay Kilchoman matured in ex-Bourbon that we have been lucky enough to have bottled for KWM. It is a gentle giant full of sweet and creamy notes that you cannot help but love.

Andrew's Tasting Note

Nose: decadent, fruity, and malt with maritime smoke; buttercream icing sugar, Junior Mints, and warm French pastries; lemon, lime, honeydew melon, and poached pear; chewy malt and salty beach bonfire smoke.

Palate: decadent, smoky, and salty with loads of fruit; bags of honey, more buttercream icing, and Junior Mints; salted caramel chocolates with chunks of almond; candied citrus fruits, more honeydew melon, and poached pear with Roquefort and quince paste; a touch of Mezcal, ashy malt, and clean oily smoke.

Finish: lush, fruity, and smoky with fading fruits; more ashy maritime smoke, chocolate and salted caramel with fading sweet citrus.

Comment: quite simply wow... it is such a privilege to have been given the opportunity to bottle this cask; big thank you to Anthony and his team for the more than 15 years we've been working together now! 

88pts Angus for Whisky Fun

"Kilchoman 10 yo 2013/2023 '100% Islay' (55.5%, OB for Kensington Wine Market, cask #27, bourbon barrel, 243 bottles) 
Colour: straw. Nose: very maritime at first, with strong impressions of rock pools, beach sand, wet kelp and shellfish broth. But there's also a bone-dry ashy note, along with oily sheep wool, wet plaster, puffer smoke and mineral salts. Extremely precise and sharp! With water: an almost acrid, brittle smokiness, wood ashes and freshly starched linens. More impressions of seawater, wet plaster, limestone and a tiny peeling of grapefruit skin. Mouth: rather herbal and oily up front, lots of ashy and lemon peat smoke, tar, whelks, cornichons in brine and mercurochrome. Pristine and very chiselled once again. With water: smoked olive oil, lemon barley water, sardines in oil, camphor, pure peat smoke and some TCP. Finish: long, salty, tarry, rather a lot of bacon rind and pork scratching and some preserved lemons in brine. Comments: amazing precision and purity, and another one that seems to tread a very fine line between seashore and farmyard, no doubt a whisky that would have Serge reaching for his beloved 'millimetric' descriptor... SGP: 367 - 88 points."

Producer Tasting Note

Nose: tropical fruit, waves of floral citrus sweetness, and salty peat smoke.

Palate: fresh vanilla, peaches and malt with layers of campfire smoke.

Finish: silky and fragrant with waves of mixed fruit sweetness and herbaceous smoke.

Distillery

The following was written by Andrew Ferguson for Celtic Life Magazine in 2017. Since then the distillery has doubled the number of stills, increasing its production considerably--albeit modestly by the standards of the industry. It is still the smallest distillery on Islay, and one of the smallest in Scotland.

On a cold, windy, and rainy evening in late May of this year, I made my way to a new maturation warehouse built on a low hill overlooking Loch Indaal. I was on the island of Islay for Feis Isle, the Islay Whisky Festival, the holiest of events in the whisky pilgrim’s calendar. This year’s festival was extra special, as two of Scotland’s most iconic distilleries, Lagavulin and Laphroaig, were marking their 200th anniversaries. While these two industry giants were the unofficial special focus of this year’s festivities, they weren’t the only distillery marking a significant milestone. 2015 is also the 10th anniversary of the founding of Kilchoman, Islay’s first new distillery in 124 years. So with the wind howling outside and sheets of rain violently rolling across the building’s roof, I made my way into a dunnage warehouse with 60 other pilgrims for a very special tasting.

The tasting was a look back at Kilchoman’s first decade and what a decade it has been. We sampled a cask from 2006, its first full year of production, and other barrel samples from 2007, 2009, and a number from 2010. It was a rare opportunity to see the whisky’s evolution. The tasting was hosted by the distillery’s founder and managing director, Anthony Wills. Anthony’s vision was to build a small farm distillery, effectively taking Scotch whisky back to its roots. Most of Scotland’s distilleries, even giants like Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, and Macallan all started out as farm distilleries.

In just 10 short years the distillery has nurtured a cult following for its whisky and built a well-earned reputation for quality. Founding a distillery, even a small-scale farm distillery like Kilchoman is no easy feat. Kilchoman’s advisors knew the distillery couldn’t wait 10 years to bottle their spirit, so it had to be flawless right off the bat. They also knew that they would need top-quality casks for maturation. To survive Kilchoman would have to start selling its whisky at a young age, and it would have to be good. There was a lot of anticipation surrounding the release of the “Kilchoman Inaugural Release” in 2009. Interest in Scotch whisky was at a fever pitch, and Islay whiskies were hotter still. The first release didn’t disappoint, and neither have the subsequent ones.

Kilchoman is entering its second decade with confidence, momentum, and a loyal following. The distillery is still bottling young, very peaty Islay whiskies, and it is still turning heads. The distillery’s success has encouraged other small-scale and farm distilleries to pop up all over Scotland. So many that I’ve frankly lost track of.

For a period after its launch, Kilchoman primarily released periodic vintage expressions, but in 2012 the brand coalesced around a core of three whiskies. Kilchoman’s production is small, and so is its footprint. You won’t find these whiskies in every liquor store, but no self-respecting whisky specialist would be caught dead without them.

Photos are all courtesy Kilchoman Distillery!