Kilchoman Casado
The Kilchoman distillery, until recently the youngest distillery child of the peat-smelling Isle of Islay, is relentless in its efforts to surprise us with something new and unusual. These days it's the whisky edition Kilchoman Casado.
As is well known, the law regulating the process of Scotch whisky production, largely limits the creativity of its creators. Only an extremely narrow set of raw materials can be used, and the various stages of production are strictly defined and leave minimal room for maneuvering. As it seems, the most to create the flavor profile of whisky can be done at the stage of its maturation. Hence the multitude of editions on the market matured or finished in a whole range of different types of barrels.
Kilchoman Distillery does not shy away from experimentation in the barley varieties used or the yeast strains used at the fermentation stage. However, the greatest emphasis is placed on the quality and types of barrels in which the whisky rests awaiting the moment of bottling. Not long ago, a whole range of different types of so-called "wood finish" debuted on the market, including an edition that evoked extreme reactions, matured in mezcal barrels in the final period.
Kilchoman Casado represents a slightly different approach to whisky maturation. What we have here are distillates that spent their first six years in first-fill bourbon barrels, before going into the huge 6,000-liter vats used in Portugal for maturing red wine. There were 38 bourbon barrels, two vats of Portuguese winemakers, and two years spent in them by peated whisky. What's more, each of the two vats was fired from the inside to a different degree. In the end, the marriage of the contents of the two vats resulted in 12,900 bottles of liquor with a strength of 46% vol., bottled in its natural form - no cold filtration and no added caramel. At the core of the described whisky was barley malt smoked to a level of 50 ppm.
According to the manufacturer, Kilchoman Casado in the aroma offers notes of campfire smoke, ripe stone fruits, mainly peaches, plums and cherries. The bouquet is complemented by touches of marzipan and distinctive marine notes. On the palate we can first expect pepperiness si spices, followed by accents of salty peat smoke, apricots and lemons. The tasting will end with wine accents, notes of fruit compote, sweet jam and classic smoke.
It is worth mentioning, by the way, that the law defining the process of Scotch whisky production, allows aging in oak barrels with a capacity of no more than 700 liters. Thus these two years spent by Kilchoman Casado in vats of Portuguese wine can in no way be added to the overall age of the whisky. Technically, therefore, it is still a whisky of 6 years at most. However, this does not matter in the slightest, as the manufacturer has abandoned in its case the declaration of age, or the provision of information on the date of distillation, from which the age of the whisky could be calculated. The Kilchoman Casado label shows only the year of bottling, which is 2022.
Suggested retail price of a single bottle Kilchoman Casado is £76.85.
Kilchoman's core range includes Sanaig, Machir Bay, Loch Gorm and 100% Islay editions, the latter two of which are released in batches as limited editions. In addition, several special, limited editions are released to the market each year, most notably liquors created as a result of experiments in the selection of barrels for full maturation, as well as the so-called wood finish.
Established in 2005, the distillery has enjoyed tremendous popularity in recent years, resulting in the expansion and doubling of the plant's production capacity in 2019. At that time, two new alembics were installed, an additional mash vat, and the number of fermentation vats was then increased to 14. Currently, the plant is capable of producing 650,000 liters of pure alcohol per year.
The current offerings of the House of Whisky Online include a wide selection of editions sourced from Kilchoman. We invite you to visit and keep up to date with the news section.
[25.10.2022 / photo: Kilchoman]