Islay

Tasting Notes

Colour: Bright gold. This is an inference based on bourbon-cask maturation and product imagery rather than a formally published colour note.

Nose: Vanilla, tropical fruits, fresh hay, toasted oak, grassy notes, and salted butter.

Palate: Milk chocolate, salted caramel, fresh peat smoke, candied citrus fruits, lemon, ripe pear, and hints of white pepper.

Finish: Lingering maritime peat smoke with fresh fruits and honied sweetness.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Gold with copper reflections. This is supported by retailer description rather than an official Kilchoman colour note.

Nose: Fragrant and delicate, with fresh pineapple, hibiscus, and lemon sherbet.

Palate: Herbal and smoky, with dried apple granola, caramelised puffed wheat, buttered popcorn, and layered peat influence.

Finish: Lightly spicy and fruit-led, with orchard-fruit freshness and lingering maritime smoke. The orchard-fruit wording is supported by retailer tasting notes, while the maritime smoke element follows Kilchoman’s official style description.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Deep gold to amber. This is an inference based on the sherry-cask style and bottle imagery rather than a formally published distillery colour note.

Nose: BBQ glaze, singed raisins, bold peat smoke, cracked black pepper, and dark cherries.

Palate: Warming and intense, with clove, liquorice, roasted nuts, sticky sherry-soaked fruit, and a dark chocolate edge moving through the smoke.

Finish: Sweet spice, savoury smoke, and a final echo of grilled plums.

Batch Strength from Islay’s Kilchoman is bottled at a hearty 57% ABV. The peated single malt is matured in a combo of re-charred red wine casks, oloroso sherry butts, and bourbon barrels, imparting rich notes of caramel and spiced dark fruit to the zesty, smoky malt at its core.

Originally released in France, Sanaig was given a wider release in 2016. Aged in a combination of oloroso-sherry and bourbon casks, this shows excellent balance between peat smoke and sweet citrus flavours.

The excellent Kilchoman Small Batch Release is a limited edition whisky that uses the finest casks available for maturation. This exclusive small batch release includes some whiskies matured in ex-bourbon, ex-sherry and STR casks.

STR casks are an innovation not found in many distilleries and were created by the late Jim Swan. The abbreviation stands for ‘shaved, toasted and recharred’.

Each cask previously contained red wine, and to tame some of the overpowering red wine flavours, the casks are shaved on the inside to expose the active wood. This is then toasted to break down the harder oak elements such as cellulose. The barrel is then charred to create an active charring layer that improves the interaction with the maturing spirit.

The bottles were bottled at 48,7 % alcohol and no chill filtration or colouring was used in the production process. The whisky is presented in a gift box.