Talisker 15 Year Old Cask Strength Whisky Review!

Another cask strength Talisker, that makes two years in a row - and a third has just been announced! Well aren't we spoiled!

I absolutely loved the 8-year old Talisker from 2018's Special Releases (full review here). It ticked every one of the boxes on my Talisker wishlist - cask strength, natural colour, non-chill filtered, and it was matured in first-fill bourbon casks while still showing the distillery character beautifully. I also scored it very highly at 4.5 out of 5, and it absolutely deserved that praise. So when the 15-year old Talisker was announced in 2019, I had to get one, and like the previous year it was once again the Special Release that I was most excited about. Again, those same Talisker boxes have been ticked - cask strength, natural colour, non-chill filtered, and matured in ex-bourbon casks - which is something that needs to be addressed. Due to the slightly vague wording used on the packaging and associated press which states "Matured only in freshly charred American oak hogsheads", quite a few people took this to mean virgin oak casks. Which never sat properly with me, I couldn't see anyone maturing a Talisker in virgin oak for 15 years, let alone freshly-charred virgin oak: the normally-robust and characterful spirit would likely have been ruined by excessive wood influence, and would be devoid of distillery character, and I knew that Diageo wouldn't be that silly. So I reached out via social media to Colin Dunn, Diageo's Whisky Ambassador based in Britain, and asked him to clarify. He helpfully confirmed what I had suspected, that those American oak hogsheads were refill ex-bourbon casks, not virgin oak. So we're talking 15 years in re-charred refill ex-bourbon hogsheads (250-litre casks that are re-coopered / up-sized from barrels). Which if you ask me is a much more exciting proposition than 15 years in virgin oak could ever hope to be!

That re-charring of refill casks, plus the extra seven years of maturation, meant that this new addition would present a very interesting comparison to the previous year's 8-year old release, which was matured in 'deep-charred' first-fill bourbon casks. Using refill casks will of course reduce the cask influence, but it's not that simple, since those refill casks were re-charred prior to filling, and also since this whisky spent nearly twice as long in those casks. This is also the first time that an official bottling of Talisker has been bottled at 15-years of age, which will add another point of difference. It's important to remember though that the vast majority of Talisker is not matured at the distillery on the Isle of Skye, but rather on the mainland of Scotland in Diageo's centralised warehouses, both because there isn't a great deal of warehouse space at the distillery itself, and also because it's easier and logistically cheaper to do so. But there's no denying that the better Talisker single malts do have a distinct maritime influence, with salt & pepper, seaweed and other coastal notes presenting to various degrees. And Talisker isn't alone here, with many other coastal distilleries in similar situations. So where does that influence come from if the majority of their spirit is transported off the island in stainless steel tanks? That's a point of contention, and it's where the alchemy and mystery of whisky comes into play - essentially, there's no straight answer. But it certainly adds to the magic of whisky!

This 2019 release weighed in at a natural cask strength of 57.3% ABV, and is non-chill filtered and naturally coloured. There seems to have been more of this one released than there was of its 8-year old predecessor, and while understandably more expensive it is priced at around $180 AUD, which is quite a good deal for a whisky of this level. It's still widely available down under at the time of writing, so get on it people! A cask strength bottling of Talisker, either official or independent, is quite a rare thing. And that's a shame, because the 8-year old and this 15-year old have shown how fantastic such things they can be. Even the distillery's '57 North' bottling, while not full cask strength and lacking age statement, shows a vastly different side of the distillery to the standard 10-year old. Even more so the non-age statement lukewarm likes of Storm, Dark Storm, Skye and the massively disappointing Game of Thrones release (reviewed here). So let's hope that Diageo keep these Special Release Taliskers coming! Speaking of which, remember that announcement that I mentioned at the start of this post? Yes, the 2020 Special Releases will give us another cask strength Talisker, and this time around it's back to 8-years of age, but with a difference - this one has been finished in Carribean rum casks! If memory serves that's a first for Diageo's single malts, and is definitely a first for Talisker, so that's extremely exciting. Let's hope it gets over the water to Australia in a hurry! But for now, let's take a look at the 2019 release and see how it fares!

Talisker 15-year old Cask Strength, 57.3%. Isle of Skye, Scotland. 
2019 Special Releases. Matured in freshly re-charred refill ex-bourbon American oak hogsheads. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Gold.

Nose: Sweet, rich & very Talisker - sea salted and cracked black pepper, a mild & fruity green chilli, and rich, buttery salted caramel fudge. Some warm spicy & nutty charred oak, dried lemon and a little toasted coconut around the edges. Some sweet stone fruit with more time - nectarine and peach, with a little cream on the side.

Texture: Medium weight, rich, salty & oily. No heat at all.

Taste: Delicious. Salted caramel dessert sauce with extra sea salt flakes. Black pepper and that mild, fruity green chilli again. Not as sweet as the nose suggested, but not quite dry either. Charred wood spices and a little seaside musty-ness behind - think wet sand and drying seashells.

Finish: Long. Black pepper carries through, as does the salted caramel sauce, but it's more buttery here. That slightly muddy & musty wet sand again too. Some charred wood dries things out, along with some brine and crystallised ginger. More sea salt, some dried lemon & lime, and a little more of the salted caramel to finish.

Score: 4 out of 5.

Notes: Another delicious cask strength Talisker, and another really great example of what they can do, showing loads of character. Yes, I do prefer the 8-year old, but there really isn't much of a gap here. The 15 is a little sweeter and a little cleaner with less peat and less cask influence (which all makes sense), and it shows a more refined version of the same distillery character, perhaps with a little less complexity, but that's nitpicking. The 15-years has helped it hide its ABV extremely well too, this is a very easy drinking single malt at over 57%. The fresh charring is evident too, but it does work very well, drying things out at the right times, and seeming to boost the salt & pepper as well.

Imagining that the 8-year old was still available, is the 15-year old worth the extra money over the 8? Yes, yes it is. But if you're a Talisker fan, or even just an Island whisky fan, you'll be wanting both. They're different drams, but both have the same delicious distillery DNA on show. This one is highly recommended - get it before it's gone. Now bring on the 2020 release please!

Cheers!

Port Charlotte 16 Year Old Whisky Review!

A 16-year old cask strength Port Charlotte that enjoyed a ridiculous amount of hype when it appeared online, prior to what would've been the Islay Festival. But it's not a Feis Ile bottling, it's a "digital exclusive"!

The lead-up to the pre-release  and release of this "Digital Exclusive" bottle of whisky was pure insanity. Not even the legendary OBA created this much drama on the insatiable interweb. In early May this year a combination of people being isolated, bored, scared, paranoid, or unable to spend their money as they normally would - or all of the above - lead to unnecessary drama that was as close as the digital whisky world gets to pandemonium. It all started with the announcement that this whisky was being released in place of a Feis Ile bottling, since Bruichladdich was closed at the time due to Covid, and the annual Feis Ile festival had been cancelled for the same reason. Bruichladdich was not to blame for the ensuing turmoil, since communications from the distillery were clear from the very start: this was not a Feis Ile release, and was never intended to be, and you won't find those words printed anywhere on this bottle or its packaging, or anywhere. It's a "Digital Exclusive" release, as in it was only available from the distillery's own website - until the hordes of mostly European flippers (looking at you, German eBay scalpers) got their greasy hands on it, of course. Furthermore, there were 3,000 bottles released - more than any recent actual Feis Ile Bruichladdich bottling that I'm aware of, and quite a generous amount overall. Part of the problem, as with many situations over the last few months, was people jumping the gun (acting presumptively) and panicking, being generally impatient, and going on the virtual attack from the comfort of their homes, phones & keyboards. Adding to this impatience was the ballot system that Bruichladdich wisely & fairly chose to utilise for the release of this whisky. You entered the ballot, once you could get on the website at least, and after it was drawn you would then receive an email saying that you had been successful. Simple. The problem was that these successful ballot winners were being notified in batches, so as soon as winner number one (alongside the next five hundred or so) posted on social media that he'd been successful, many of those who had not (yet) received an email promptly spiralled into a Hollywood diva-level meltdown. I'm sure that more than a few keyboards and smartphone screens met their egregious end during those dark days. But all was not lost, there was plenty to go around, and when all was said & done I believe that the vast majority of ballot entries were eventually successful. Aside from that one blood-sucking insect of a flipper who entered the ballot something like sixty times - luckily the distillery caught on and he/she was hopefully left empty-handed. Hopefully.

Aside from all of that totally unnecessary drama, this whisky is actually quite an interesting proposition. A 16-year old Port Charlotte, bottled at a could-be cask strength of 55.8%, and taken from a seemingly hodgepodge mix of different casks, put together from three different 'parcels' of unknown proportions, all at least 16-years of age. Part one was originally filled into refill hogsheads (250-litre casks) before being re-racked into first-fill ex-bourbon barrels (200-litre casks) in 2012. So it was finished / double-matured / additional cask enhanced for around seven years. Part two was originally housed in first-fill ex-bourbon barrels, before being re-racked into ex-Sauternes sweet wine casks in 2013, so also finished / double-matured for around six years. Part three is a "complex assemblage of ex-sherry, ex-bourbon and virgin oak casks", and assuming that those casks were fully-matured rather than finished, that is the most curious of the three component 'parcels'. Naturally (pun intended) it's also non-chill filtered and naturally coloured. As eye-catching as the age statement on this bottle is, there has actually already been a 16-year old Port Charlotte - that was an actual Feis Ile bottling from 2018, named 'The Heretic'. This 16-year old Digital Exclusive could possibly be older than its predecessor, but Bruichladdich haven't told us the month/s of distillation or bottling in either case (probably because there were multiple distillation runs involved), so we can't be sure, which means both bottlings were 16-years of age.

This was not a cheap bottle of whisky. It sold for 150 GBP, plus shipping, and if you're unlucky enough to live in a country that likes to punish you for having the nerve to import a bottle of whisky for personal consumption, such as Australia, a hefty customs bill & courier fee will add to that already significant amount. The one person that I know of who wasn't afraid to publicise how much this expensive process cost him paid over $420 AUD to have a single bottle of this 16-year old single malt arrive on his doorstep down under. And that's a very serious spend - for those playing overseas, a bottle of the already-quite expensive Bruchladdich Black Art 6 can be found for around $550 AUD, which is a 26-year old whisky, although it's bottled at a lower strength and is less limited than this Port Charlotte. That same one person by the way is also the source of the sample for this review, by way of a sample swap with yours truly, and without that it's unlikely that I would've ever tasted this dram. One more point before we get to the good stuff - I know I often harp on about this, but I'm going to do it again: just like the permanent 10-year old Port Charlotte that is often referred to as, but is not actually, PC10 (there can be only one real PC10!), this whisky is not PC16. The PC-series ended with PC12 that was last bottled around five years ago. I know we like to abbreviate things in the whisky world, but let's give the real PC series the respect that it deserves! Instead this is a 16-year old Port Charlotte, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But enough of all that, time to get into it!

Port Charlotte 16 Year Old Digital Exclusive (not Feis Ile!), 55.8%. Islay, Scotland.
Distilled 2003, bottled 2020. Matured in a mix of re-racked bourbon, re-racked Sauternes, ex-bourbon, ex-sherry and virgin oak casks (see above). Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 3,000 bottles.

Colour: Full gold.

Nose: Fresh, sweet, gentle & inviting. Under-ripe (but not unripe) tropical fruit, floral sweetness, a little tar and white pepper. Sea salt, almond brittle / praline, fresh linen and rich vanilla. Seems like the Sauternes casks are the main players here - no bad thing - with sweet tropical & white fruits - white peach, white grape & melon. A very-slight trace of Bruichladdich's lactic sweetness too (think sweeter hard cheeses).

Texture: Medium weight, soft & sweet, quite refined & well balanced. No heat at all.

Taste: Well balanced between sweet fruit & dry, spicy smoke. White peach, under-ripe honeydew (green) melon, icing sugar and a flash of floral notes. Spicy dry smoke, lightly ashy & earthy peat, with a hint of under-ripe sweet banana & toffee behind.

Finish: Long length. Spicy smoke & ashy peat carry through, then that under-ripe tropical & white fruit again, with fresh lemon, and some chilli & almond chocolate. Turning more earthy with a flash of tar and freshly laid gravel alongside. Dried lemon & a lightly salty minerality to finish.

Score: 4 out of 5. Close to a 4.5 though.

Notes: Refined, complex and almost subtle, this Port Charlotte - and you'd never guess the ABV was that high. The balance here is fantastic, with the sweet cask influence working very well with that smoky & sweet Port Charlotte spirit. It does seem like the Sauternes casks have been the most assertive here, or maybe there were just more of them in the vatting? Either way, Bruichladdich do seem to be masters at using these sweet wine casks, and it works well with all three of their spirits (see here for an Octomore example). Don't dive in to this Port Charlotte expecting a later-PC series punch, this 16-year old is a much more mellow and more refined experience - the extra four years of maturation, plus a lot of cask finishing / ACEing, have certainly made themselves known, without overwhelming the smoke and spirit.

I was a little cynical going into this one, thanks to the ridiculous amount of hype and drama that it created (none of which was the distillery's fault), and the not-insignificant pricing for those playing overseas. But there was no need for that cynicism, this Port Charlotte is not disappointing in any way, this is a very tasty dram. It just needs to be opened and enjoyed to be appreciated, when is when you'll instantly forget about all that carry-on that preceded it.

Cheers!

Highwayman Australian Whisky Sneak Preview!

Specifically, a preview of Highwayman's forthcoming releases - Batches 6, 7, and 8, which are due to be released sequentially over the next three weeks!

Even the most devout whisky fans outside of Australia will not have heard of Highwayman Single Malt Whisky - yet. This relative newcomer is the brain child of none other than Dan Woolley, one of the most widely-known names in the whisky scene in Australia, and one of the most influential people involved in that scene - I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the whisky scene in Australia would look very different today without this man's fanatical work across countless tastings, training sessions, masterclasses and events aimed at both the industry itself and the general population. Woolley has worked for a number of retailers, distributors and distilleries over a long career in the industry, most notably as the National Brand Ambassador for Beam Suntory's single malts - particularly his personal favourite, Laphroaig. Over those years he has amassed a huge following in both the industry and in the wider whisky community, so when he made the move to start his own company and release his own Australian whiskies, it was always going to be a roaring success. The name Highwayman refers to the incalculable mileage that Woolley has amassed over his nearly-30 years in the industry, travelling across the country and the world while working at distilleries, owning and running bars and working as a brand ambassador. But he has also quietly amassed one hell of a stockpile of casks filled with Australian single malt, which followed him home along those same highways to the coastal town of Byron Bay, New South Wales, on the east coast of Australia.

So far, there have been just five tiny releases of Highwayman Single Malt, all independent bottlings of single malt that was distilled at various Australian distilleries - including both Tasmania and the mainland. Those first five batches each consisted of less than 100 bottles, and each sold out in a matter of minutes. So for those playing overseas, you probably won't be able to get your hands on one of these whiskies, and (for once) you'll know how we Australians often feel when that situation is reversed! While the Highwayman releases so far have been independent bottlings of Australian single malt, the majority of their still-maturing spirit has been mashed, fermented and distilled in Woolley's own mash tun and copper pot still which are currently sharing space at Byron Bay's Lord Byron Distillery, who are producing their own high-quality rum, vodka, gin and liqueur. Once Woolley's own single malt spirit comes of age it will be Byron Bay's first single malt whisky, and as you'd rightly expect from this Islay fanatic there's also some peated single malt on the way - which will be very exciting! Plans are also afoot to move into a separate premises, since the existing cask racks are already looking a little crowded. Speaking of which, cask types are a somewhat eclectic mix of 20-, 50- and 100-litre casks from a range of backgrounds including ex-wine (some also heavily charred), ex-Apera (Australian sherry), ex-PX sherry, ex-Tawny (Australian port), ex-rye and ex-bourbon. This is definitely a distillery to watch!

What we're looking at today are sneak-previews of the next three instalments in the Highwayman story - Batch 6, Batch 7 and Batch 8. Batch 6 is due to launch tomorrow, Monday 17th August, followed by Batch 7 on the following Monday, and finishing with Batch 8 on August 31. I was lucky enough to receive samples of each so that I can share the love, and of course help boost your anticipation - as with the previous five batches, these whiskies will not last long at all! These three single malt bottlings were all distilled at the same distillery in central Tasmania (don't worry, it wasn't Nant!) in the same mash tun and copper pot still that now reside with Highwayman in Byron Bay. These are young, small cask-aged whiskies, that are also given a boost by the region's sub-tropical temperate climate - without the massive temperature swings of the southern states, but with much higher humidity. While not as hot or humid as it would be a little further north in Queensland, I can personally attest to just how toasty this warehouse can get in summer! All three of these releases are bottled at 55.5% ABV, and while the first five batches were cask finishes and/or marriages of different cask types, these three batches have been fully-matured in one cask type. While the images below don't show them, the back labels of these very pretty wax-dipped bottles do list the hand-written batch details, including bottle number, cask type, ABV and spirit information. As with all high-strength and small batch Australian whisky, these aren't cheap bottles in the grand scheme of things - so far each has sailed north of $200 AUD, but that's the going rate for such a product. In fact it's actually significantly cheaper than other Australian independent bottlings, let alone some of the bottlings from many of the more famous Tasmanian distilleries.

And with that, it's finally time to take a closer look at these forthcoming releases, because I can't wait any longer!

Highwayman Batch 6 has been fully-matured in 2 x 20-litre French oak ex-Apera (Australian sherry-style fortified wine) casks for over three years (2-years being the minimum age for Australian whisky), which yielded just 66 x 500ml bottles at 55.5% ABV. Expect this one to sell out in minutes, just like the previous five batches!

Colour: Very dark amber.

Nose: Rich, thick & intense. Butter toffee and spiced fudge, dark chocolate truffles (dusted with cocoa), gold raisins & currants. Eucalyptus branches, scorched hazelnuts & a clean mud-like earthiness.

Texture: Medium weight, big, rich & intense. No heat or harshness at all.

Taste: Rich & syrupy, with more butter toffee and chocolate truffles. Some rum & raisin chocolate fudge, and more hazelnuts. Some spearmint & leafy herbs in the background, along with some roasted coffee beans and burnt orange.

Finish: Fades quite quickly, with more roasted coffee beans, thick butter toffee and that eucalyptus note coming back through. A slight bitter wood tannin but it's very tame in comparison to most French oak 20-litre casks.

Score: 4 out of 5.

Notes: The Australian 'sherry bomb' doesn't get much better than this. The nose on this one is fantastic, as is the palate, although it does drop off a little in the finish, which I'm guessing would be down to its youth, but aside from that this Highwayman easily belongs alongside the big name Aussie sherry bomb whiskies, and it beats quite a few of them if you ask me!

Highwayman Batch 7 has been fully-matured in 3 x 50-litre American oak ex-Tawny (Australian port-style fortified wine) casks, again for over three years. At around 220 x 500ml bottles this is the largest batch of Highwayman to date, so it should - should - last a little longer than the previous releases before selling out. 55.5% ABV.

Colour: Dark again. Think Glendronach 18, but this is 3-years old!

Nose: Rich, thick & deep. Thick butter toffee again, but with more butter, and a big fistful of freshly toasted shredded coconut. Dark chocolate almonds, curry leaves and warm cinnamon. Dark cherry juice and cough syrup, slightly meaty in feel (but I wouldn't say sulphur-y).

Texture: Big, rich & intense. More powerful and aggressive, with a slight heat to this one. 

Taste: Softer entry but builds quickly with more cherry, and more chocolate but in a dessert sauce now. Almonds again, charred oak and fruity, sweet & thick BBQ sauce. More curry leaves and cinnamon hiding in the background.

Finish: Longer and more substantial here than #6. More dark chocolate, sweet & buttery charred oak, toasted almonds. The coconut comes back as well, but mixed in with cherry and chocolate dessert sauce here. A little drying wood tannin towards the end.

Score: 3 out of 5. Almost a 3.5 though.

Notes: A more powerful and more intense dram, but also with more tannins - which is interesting considering it's usually French oak that does that rather than American, but there's more tannin here than there was in batch #6. There's some more spirit showing through here, but I wouldn't call it raw. This one is more towards the 'typical' port cask-matured Australian whisky, which I personally am moving away from these days, while many others won't drink anything else - so consider the above score with that in mind.

Highwayman Batch 8 has been fully-matured in 2 x 50-litre ex-Maker's Mark bourbon casks, again for over three years. This is the first Highwayman to be fully-matured in ex-bourbon casks, which is still not a common thing for Australian whisky - although they can often yield the best results, in my amateur opinion, since the wood- and cask influence is usually more tame and less tannic, and more distillery character can show through. This batch consists of 150 x 500ml bottles at 55.% ABV.

Colour: Very dark amber. Almost the same as batch #6, but this is a bourbon cask!

Nose: Softer and more subdued in character - in comparison, which is no bad thing, but it's still rich & dense overall. Sweeter too. Thick melted butter, hints of shredded coconut and some sandalwood. This'd make for a nice cologne! Mocha coffee and caramel fudge, dry-roasted peanuts and toasted buttery oak.

Texture: Softer, more balanced and less cask-forward, but only in comparison. No heat to this one.

Taste: More balanced and more nuanced, with toasted buttery oak again, some powdery milk chocolate (think blocks of cooking chocolate) and more caramel fudge. Demerara sugar (a.k.a coffee crystals), melted butter and a little molasses.

Finish: Softer, but also longer than the previous two. More caramel, butter and coconut, sweet golden toasted oak, a little eucalyptus and an almost dark rum-like funk that is hard to pin down.

Score: 3.5 out of 5.

Notes: This Highwayman is unlike any ex-bourbon cask whisky that I've tasted to date, Aussie or otherwise, although the colour should've warned me that would be the case! That's no bad thing though, it's just interesting. This is still very much a cask- and wood-driven whisky, but it's the more balanced and the more 'integrated' of the three.



Overall Notes: Despite the intense and sometimes aggressive wood influence and cask influence in these three whiskies, the distillery character does show through, there's clearly a common backbone between all three - that's particularly clear in Batch #6 and Batch #8 though. Prior to tasting these I had expected to personally prefer Batch #8 over the other two, only because I often prefer ex-bourbon cask Australian whiskies these days to the wine- and fortified wine-matured varieties, but Batch #6 really won me over! The noses on all three are great, and each is very enjoyable of course, but with its own set of quirks, and no shortage of character. They're the intense, wood & cask-driven whiskies that is the Australian style, and that Australian whisky drinkers do love, but there's also less tannin, less heat and less overtly-aggressive spirit in these three Highwayman bottlings than there is in most other Australian whiskies at similar ages and strengths. It's clear that Woolley has been very careful here, and very "hands-on" in each step of the process, and as I expected he's done a great job!

These three whiskies are being launched in partnership with the Australian Whisky Appreciation Society, and are only available through joining their mailing list and website at https://www.awas.com.au/join-us/ . Don't procrastinate with these Highwayman releases either, if you blink you could easily miss out - Batch #6 will be sold out in less than 24 hours from the time of writing! Thanks to Dan Woolley and Highwayman for the samples of these whiskies, and a major congratulations on your success so far. I can't wait to see what else you come up with!

Cheers!

Kilkerran 8 Year Old Cask Strength (2019) Whisky Review!

One that Australia missed out on completely - which is a massive shame. Thankfully our friends over the water in NZ came to the rescue for a lucky few!

I'm already a fan of Campbeltown's Kilkerran 8-year old Cask Strength, so when this bottling popped up almost a year ago (in Europe) I knew that I had to have one. Why this specific bottling? Because it's the first Kilkerran '8CS' that was not matured in first-fill ex-bourbon casks - specifically, this one has been fully-matured in re-charred Oloroso sherry casks. This bottling got a huge amount of attention in Britain and Europe, and it slowly spread to some other countries, but sadly Australia is currently between importers & distributors for Kilkerran at the moment - as in, there isn't one - after issues with the previous importer. While there is still some leftover stock of the Kilkerran 12-year old core range bottling around, even it is few and far between, and we seem to have completely missed out on not only this bottling that I'm reviewing today, but also the first two batches of the distillery's Heavily Peated expression which have already come & gone in most other countries. Those are, or rather were, 3-4 year old whiskies, bottled at cask strength, that were distilled from barley peated to something like 80 ppm, which is a significantly higher peating level than basically everything except Octomore, and far exceeds that of Longrow, Kilkerran's heavily-peated Campbeltown-cousin. They were very reasonably priced overseas, and by all reports were also very tasty. The only real options for Australian Campbeltown fans who wanted to get their hands on any of these bottlings were either direct import from Europe, plus the huge customs, freight & local courier charges that come with it, or for a lucky few a fantastic little store located across the Tasman in New Zealand which tends to offer outstanding pricing - far better than we get in Australia. Let's hope we get a new Australian importer for Kilkerran soon, because they're really ramping up in terms of international praise & awareness, and they seem to really be definitely hitting their stride - someone pick up the torch please, we need more Kilkerran in Australia ASAP!

For those who aren't aware, Kilkerran single malt is produced by Glengyle Distillery, located in Campbeltown on the Kintyre Peninsula in south-western Scotland. The Kilkerran name came about partly out of necessity, since Glengyle is already the name of a blended Scotch whisky from another region. But it's also derived from the Gaelic name for the original settlement that later became Campeltown, which roughly translates to "Church of St. Kiaran (Kerran)". The distillery is owned by J&A Mitchell, the privately-owned parent company behind the legendary Springbank Distillery and also Cadenhead's, Scotland's oldest independent bottler. The Glengyle name refers to a Campbeltown distillery that operated from 1872 to 1925, but rather than just being named after a local dead distillery as a tribute like many other whisky brands (Hazelburn, Longrow, Ballechin & Port Charlotte for example), there are more connections here, and they run much deeper. For starters, the 'new' distillery is actually housed in the original buildings on the original site of Glengyle Distillery, which is found a few hundred metres down the road from Springbank. So it's actually a resurrected old distillery rather than a new distillery - they actually refer to themselves as 'Campbeltown's newest old distillery'! Now home to just three working examples, in the Victorian era this small town was once home to 34 distilleries, and Campbeltown is now dotted with both the decaying corpses of many abandoned distilleries, and also with some that were re-purposed and only show subtle hints of what they once were. Most of these distilleries met their end somewhere in the first third of the 20th century due to a number of factors, including a race to pump out stock which saw the market become flooded and in some cases quality then became compromised, which damaged the region's reputation. There was also prohibition in the US, and shifting demand from the Scottish blenders who were keeping up with the changing tastes of their markets. One more connection between J&A Mitchell and Glengyle is actually a family connection, since Mr. Hedley Wright, chairman of J&A Mitchell, is actually the great-nephew of the original founder of the distillery, William Mitchell. William founded and ran Springbank Distillery together with brother John until the two had a falling out, which saw William found his own distillery, Glengyle.

There had been other attempts to resurrect the distillery in the past, but none had succeeded until J&A Mitchell came along in 2000, and the distillery re-opened in 2004, almost 80 years after Glengyle had last produced spirit. This resurrection saw Glengyle become Campbeltown's third active distillery, joining Glen Scotia and of course Springbank, which helped this town of 9,000 residents maintain its status with the Scotch Whisky Association as a designated whisky region of its own. After the original distillery buildings were extensively restored, the hunt was on for equipment - Glengyle's mill was sourced from Craigellachie, while the stills and some other equipment came from the deceased Ben Wyvis Distillery. Those two stills were customised to better suit Glengyle's desired spirit style, which saw the still shape and lyne arm-angle changed. The barley used at Glengyle is floor-malted down the road at Springbank on their two malting floors, and for all but the Heavily Peated expressions mentioned above that barley is lightly peated to around 15 ppm, which is the same level as Springbank's namesake whisky. Once received at Glengyle the malted barley is milled and mashed on-site, and fermented in their four wooden washbacks for 72-110 hours, a long fermentation period that is again similar to that used at Springbank - they also share the same water source, the nearby Crosshill Loch. That's where things deviate, as Glengyle's Kilkerran whisky is double-distilled and uses shell & tube condensers rather than the intricate distillation process & complicated setup that is used at its sister distillery, so don't think that this is simply Springbank by another name - this is a distinctly different single malt. Maturation happens in both modern racked warehouses and traditional dunnage warehouses, and bottling happens at Springbank's bottling hall. This is a very tiny distillery by the way, with an annual production capacity of well under 200,000-litres of spirit, and actual production is often significantly less, so there really isn't much of it to go around.

Glengyle released a number of "Work in Progress" bottlings while waiting for their core range Kilkerran 12-year old to mature, which debuted back in 2016. As you'd expect from this company, none of their single malts are chill filtered or artificially coloured, and all are bottled at a minimum of 46% ABV. As far as the 8-year old Cask Strength expression, there have been four batches released to date, each consisting of at least 9,000 bottles, the first of which debuted in early 2017. But as with the brilliant Springbank 12-year old Cask Strength, they aren't printed with any batch numbers, so they can only be identified by the different alcoholic strengths. As mentioned above the first three batches were matured in first-fill ex-bourbon casks, while this fourth batch, the 2019-bottling of Kilkerran 8-year old Cask Strength was fully-matured in re-charred Oloroso sherry casks - which I would take to mean first-fill casks that have been re-charred before filling. This was also a larger release, with 15,000 bottles released compared to the 9,000 units of the previous three batches. So, a lightly peated, double distilled Kilkerran matured in re-charred Oloroso sherry casks, and bottled at a cask strength of 57.1%. Something tells me this is going to be quite the tasty dram! My sample for this review came from a very generous NZ-based reader named Julie, who was lucky enough to nab one from the store that I hinted at above. Shall we?

Kilkerran 8 Year Old Cask Strength, 2019 release, 57.1%. Campbeltown, Scotland.
Double-distilled from lightly peated barley floor-malted at Springbank, fully matured in re-charred (presumably first-fill) Oloroso sherry casks. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 15,000 bottles.

Colour: Dark amber. Not as red/rusty as it looks in the bottle.

Nose: Soft & surprisingly subtle to begin with, then unfolds with dry meaty (rancio - game-y / meaty / funky) sherry, some cloves, black cherries and rum & raisin dark chocolate. A little ginger, wood-smoked cheddar cheese and a little gravy powder. Dried berries and hints of leather & earthy peat with more time.

Texture: Medium-heavy weight, rich & very oily, dry & fruity. No heat at all.

Taste: Soft syrupy entry, but very oily, then it builds to a big dry, meaty & rancio sherry influence with dried fruit, clove, dried orange, and that rum & raisin dark chocolate again. Some cherry liqueur - but without the sweetness, so maybe cherry schnapps? Some liquorice and leather in the background.

Finish: Long length. Getting more meaty & savoury again with clean machine oils, more rancio sherry notes and dry spices, salt showing up now too. Also some rubber, and more dark chocolate, some orange oil. Getting earthy and lightly waxy towards the end.

Score: 4 out of 5.

Notes: Delicious! The nose on this 8-year old Cask Strength is surprisingly soft & inviting, especially compared to the palate and finish that follow it. The finish in particular doesn't go anywhere in a hurry! There are shades of Longrow 14-year old Sherry Cask and Benromach Peat Smoke Sherry Cask here, but the Kilkerran is not as dirty or as funky - and it's not downright sulphur-y like the Longrow. It's also quite different - very oily, slightly cheesy (lactic) and not as dark in flavour - but that's no bad thing! It still has the oily, earthy, lightly briny and lactic character than I find in Kilkerran, but this distillery has never been as funky as Springbank - but is more so than Glen Scotia. So it's something of a middle child in the Campbeltown distillery family -  again, no bad thing!

This is certainly a great dram, but in my opinion if you're a Campbeltown fan that is wanting to try a Kilkerran for the first time you'd be better off going for the bourbon cask-matured versions of the 8-year old Cask Strength. They let more distillery character show through, and they're a more unique offering that is not seen from those neighbouring distilleries. But if you've already been there & done that, then this sherry-matured version is going to scratch your itch - it's just a shame that Australia has seemingly missed out on this one. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that we get a new importer soon!

Cheers!

Cardhu 14 Year Old Cask Strength Whisky Review!

My first cask strength Cardhu, and - spoiler alert - it's completely changed my impression of the distillery!

Cardhu is another of Diageo's quiet workhorse distilleries that sees the vast majority of its production go towards the Johnnie Walker blends. In fact this particular distillery was chosen to be "The Home of Johnnie Walker" for the tourists, with its visitor's centre acting as that of both the distillery and the blended whiskies. Quite a few of the larger commercial blended brands do this, and the cynic in me says that it's only done to make sure that those brands don't miss out on the tourist dollars, and in the same vein, to associate those large commercial blended whiskies with an actual distillery. Originally named Cardow, this Speyside distillery is located near Knockando, around a 30-minute drive south of Elgin, and was officially licensed under the Excise Act in 1824, although at that point it had already been operating as an illicit farm distillery. It was purchased by John Walker & Sons in 1893 - which later became DCL, and then later Diageo, although Cardow whisky had already been used in the Johnnie Walker blends prior to the purchase. Cardow Distillery was responsible for DCL's first foray into single malts in 1965, which was renamed Cardhu - meaning "Black Rock" in Gaelic, and the distillery was re-named to match in 1981. These days their 3.5-million litre production capacity is produced through ten washbacks - eight wooden and two stainless, which is interesting - and six stills, and roughly 70% of their production goes to blends, with the remainder sold as single malt.

What's most interesting about their single malt output was a controversial move to a vatted / blended malt in the early 2000s, which was labelled as a 'Cardhu pure malt' and had very similar packaging - including their unique semi-square bottle, to the earlier single malt. This change came about because the distillery couldn't keep up with the strong demand that was coming both from the blenders and their own customers. So they blended some different single malts together, and named the product 'Cardhu Pure Malt', which combined with the very similar presentation to the single malt was considered misleading - the customer was now buying a blend, not a single malt, but that blend was labelled as a distillery bottling and packaged almost idenitcally. This controversy was partly responsible for the current SWA regulations concerning the term "blended malt", rather than the vague 'pure malt' or confusing 'vatted malt'. Cardhu was re-launched as a single malt in the mid-2000s, and again the packaging & presentation was hardly changed - and it's still largely the same even today. Cardhu single malts tend to fly under the radar in Australia, but they're very popular in Europe and particularly Spain, with the 12-year old, 15-year old and 18-year old (all bottled at 40%, chill filtered and artificially coloured) forming the core range, plus the very forgettable Game of Thrones release, of course. Speaking of forgettable, the distillery's flagship 12-year old offering is pleasant enough, a typically sweet, easy Speysider, and it's probably the only example of Cardhu that many malt fans will have come across - yours truly included.

But what we have here is far more interesting. Although there was a 21-year old cask strength bottling released a few years ago as part of Diageo's annual Special Releases, the 14-year old bottling from the 2019 Special Releases that we're looking at today is the first cask strength Cardhu that I've ever laid eyes on. It's also far, far more interesting than the distillery's core range, because this is a non-chill filtered, naturally coloured Cardhu, with an age statement, that has been finished in Amontillado sherry casks for two years prior to bottling. Amontillado (pronounced "Ah-mont-ee-aah-doh") sherry is a dry style of fortified wine that is roughly halfway between a Fino and an Oloroso, where it starts life as a Fino, but the protective layer of "flor" yeast & bacteria is either intentionally killed off or dies naturally during maturation, so the wine then oxidises like an Oloroso would. It is typically a golden colour and is a nutty, herbal / vegetal and acidic & dry in flavour. We don't often see Amontillado casks used in whisky production - Glenkinchie Distiller's Edition and this excellent Laphroaig Cairdeas from 2014 are/were the only widely available Scottish examples that come to mind - although their use does seem to be on the rise. So this 14-year old Cardhu is a very interesting proposition! There were only 4,860 bottles produced of this one, quite a low number for a Diageo release, at a cask strength of 55.0% ABV, and the Australian pricing is quite reasonable at around $180 AUD. I must admit that I wasn't sure about the new packaging of 2019's Special Releases, but it has grown on me since - particularly that of the Talisker & Lagavulin bottlings, and while I'm not sure about the brown, this one is also nicely understated. This cask strength Cardhu is still readily available at the time of writing, probably because the distillery isn't as lusted-after as many of the other bottlings in 2019's batch of Special Releases, but - spoiler alert - this is actually quite the hidden gem. Let's see how it goes!

Cardhu 14-year old Cask Strength, 55.0%. Speyside, Scotland.
Finished for two years in Amontillado sherry casks. 4,860 bottles released, part of Diageo's 2019 Special Releases. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Yellow gold w/amber tinges.

Nose: Rich, sweet & spicy. Fresh sweet apples in sweet, thick syrup, marzipan (almond paste) and apricot. Slightly floral, with buttery fresh golden oak, lemonade soft drink (7-Up) and a nice salty, lightly funky tang. Vanilla-spiked icing sugar, spiced red apples and one little black jelly bean come through with more time.

Texture: Medium weight, lightly oily, full-flavoured, rich & spicy. Warming and slightly dry, but no heat.

Taste: Sweet apples again for a split-second, then drying with lovely spices, clean oils, black pepper and dry (savoury) honey-roasted nuts. Some more buttery fresh oak, slight ginger here too. Some dried leafy herbs - sage, burnt rosemary? A little drying minerality too, almost salty.

Finish: Medium-long length. OK now it's not almost salty, it's just salty. Lovely drying, mineral and almost chalky saltiness. Then that hint of aniseed and more buttery oak, but it's drier now with more ginger. Then red apples again, but they're stewed now with some cinnamon sticks and cocoa powder thrown in.

Score: 3.5 out of 5.

Notes: Very impressive! Almost surprisingly good, and this is now the second time that I've tasted this Cardhu so it wasn't just a shallow first impression. This whisky is a bit of a hidden gem if you ask me, and it helps that it's coming from a very quiet distillery. The nose on this 14-year old is particularly lovely - sweet, rich & expressive, an easy nose to get lost in. The palate and finish are much drier and more spicy (not hot or harsh, just spicy flavours) in comparison, but are still very enjoyable with plenty of character. And there's always something fascinating about a dram that doesn't taste like it noses, regardless of which aspect of the experience is the better. Although I've only tasted three of the 2019 Special Releases to date, surely this Cardhu has to be one of the surprise hits in the bunch. I didn't expect much from it, and I'm happy to say that I was wrong! Flavour, richness and character, and a very reasonable price to boot.

If, like myself, you've only tried the standard 12-year old Cardhu so far and were left wanting, this cask strength Amontillado finish will completely change your perception of the distillery and what it can do. It's still available in Australia at the time of writing, and I'd recommend giving it a go!

Cheers!