Origin: Isle of Islay (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 58.6%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry Casks
Chillfiltered: No
Additional coloring: No
Owner: Kilchoman
Average price: € 62.00
Official website: kilchomandistillery.com
Vote: 87/100
Let’s go back for a few moments to last Christmas, with the Winter version of the hugely popular Machir Bay, proposed at the end of 2020 in a cask strength edition.
Bottled in August of the same year, despite being a limited edition it’s offered almost at the same price as the basic version, and should not be confused with another cask strength (non-festive) edition, at almost double the price.
Tasting notes
Straw yellow with rosy reflections in the glass.
Wild strawberry and lychees highlight on the nose, in a caressing and sweetened profile with a thread of peat smoke as support. A saline note counterpoints pineapple, beads, yellow orange juice, horchata, pink grapefruit, aniseed touch and sprinkled with white pepper. Vanilla appears at a distance, along with an impression of boiled cabbage. Faceted.
Pleasant pinch of ginger and pepper at the entrance, with the peat that heats the palate in a soft and oily layer of burning wood, where fruits (kiwi, pineapple, orange, pere), almonds, scar notes (lime and grapefruit) and even salt are more noticeable on the length. Slight bitter base note, with sulphurous touches.
Fairly long and savory finish of dull embers, pepper, orange, red fruits, almonds, rhubarb.
An interesting and in some respects unusual whisky, in which the gradation infuses new expressions to a known face, without distorting it or leading to great revolutions, recognizable yet different in an unsead path of drinkability that you follow with pleasure.
Reviews of Kilchoman whisky in the blog
Other perspectives:
Malt Review