Kilchoman STR Cask Matured (2019 Edition)

The evening of the January 2022 bomb cyclone. It’s been a fair amount of time since my last tasting. Time and energy haven’t been on my side to do one. In the mood for a bit of peat/smoke. From a sample received some time ago, this seems perfect. Kilchoman has been a favorite of mine. Starting with Machir Bay 2006, one of their very first. Since then, I had several others. All have been quite good to great. Not a bad pour from the lot. Though Kilchoman usually presents an aggressive, punchy, in-your-face aroma immediately on the nose, this STR takes a more graceful, subtle, elegant approach. Like attending a formal event instead of a party. The peatiness seems to eventually fade to a point of nothingness. Hints of honey, orange citrus, cranberries, and maritime brininess. Still graceful, the palate takes on a velvety, silky texture which envelops the peat making it approachable and balanced. The peat provides the foundation for the flavors it supports. Caramel sweetness, dark chocolate, and black licorice. The spicy side emerges and the sweetness fades. Red pepper flakes and ground cinnamon. The red pepper returns and flavors the palate like hot and sour sauce. A long and steady finish lasting indefinitely. Earthy cigar ash/soot, licorice, dark roasted coffee blended with wisps of caramel and dark chocolate sweetness. A very approachable Kilchoman. A sipper that doesn’t wear the palate down with peat. The nice steady presence of the peat-brine with the spicy-sweetness. This comes across as a matured version of Sanig, which I find to be, for me, preferable to Machir Bay. This will not disappoint. [90/100][Tasted: 1/28/22]

I really like Kilchoman and it's my preferred peat Islay distillery so far, followed by Ardbeg and Bunnahabhain. Their selection is already extensive, despite only beginning production in 2005. It's impressive what they've accomplished in these past few years. What made this specific expression so intriguing to me was its slightly higher ABV at 50% and its maturation in a red wine STR cask. It's 7 years old (2012 / 2019), but for Kilchoman, I feel age isn't too critical. I'm sure that perception will shift once we have the opportunity to taste a 20-year-old, but for now, I don't feel anything is missing in their whisky. Nose: The remarkable Kilchoman signature peat is smoothly integrated with cooked berries in vanilla pudding, topped with a soft, buttery caramel sauce - and a cold ash in the background, adding a certain coolness to the aroma. Palate: Exhilarating stuff. Much less sweet than anticipated. The peat is immediately prominent and dominates the palate throughout. There's hardly any sweetness initially. Alongside a rough, ashy peat, it has a very refined but limited smoothness reminiscent of a fruit bar made from cooked orchard fruits and berries. It becomes maltier and sweeter with each sip. Finish: Peaty, salty, and briny smooth with a peppery heat that lasts indefinitely. It's incredibly clean and well-defined. It possesses a great deal of character and is very honest and pure. It's quite a demanding experience but so enjoyable and interesting, with a developing flavor profile over the course of a dram. Very exciting. (I will revisit this taste after I've progressed through the bottle in a few months.)

To create an excellent wine cask matured whisky, remove most of the wine-saturated wood. Begin by scraping its interior to take away some of that stained surface. Then toast it using wood chips to caramelize the exposed wood. Following that, char it - apply more fire to the thing. Fire is good, wine is bad seems to be the message. Then discard the cask - there's still a trace of wine in it, after all. Okay, I've gone too far, but the lesson from this successful maturation experiment appears to be that a little wine cask goes a long way. Scraping, toasting, and re-charring seem to provide an exceptional integration between cask and whisky based on this bottling. The wine's influence is apparent from the hint of red berries in the aroma, but there's also sea salt that speaks to the spirit. There's sweetness on the palate as well, but it's primarily oily, savory, and spicy, even a bit meaty. The berries reappear on the finish, which leaves a long caramel aftertaste. Overall, it's one of the most successful red-wine cask whiskies I've tasted, surpassing many of the Longrow Reds and recalling the best aspects of the recent Bunnahabhain Bordeaux cask. It's not a typical Kilchoman by any means, but a delightful deviation generously released in 14,500 bottles.

Last night while pouring out samples for friends (including some mentioned), I decided to try a few sips. It was a small amount, only a couple of sips, so it's hard to say if it provides a complete impression. This is a new Kilchoman, aged in STR casks. It's a limited edition and quite experimental. STR stands for "Shaved", "Toasted", and "Re-Charred" red wine casks. In theory, this method should remove red wine tannins while adding vanilla, yet retain the berry notes from the red wine cask. I'm a big fan of Kilchoman. Except for their port cask expression, every other release I've had has been excellent. I appreciate how the peat is noticeable and central, but not overwhelming, and is complemented by other flavors. This one seems to follow suit. On the nose, I detect summer berries, followed by an earthy, peaty taste with more red berries. The finish is a long, lingering lemon-peat. I still prefer their Red Wine cask the most, but this one, at $70, is also very good.

The aroma is very delicate, with a soft sweetness of cooked apples, marzipan, honey, and dates. The peat gradually emerges, suspended between the herbaceous and the smoke, carried by a sea breeze that seems to caress the other aromas. Balanced and elegant. On the palate, the peat rises with imperious heat, compact and oily, raising a cloud of smoke in which banana, olives, and chili pepper are mixed, with a pinch of anise, ripe apple, cinnamon... it is a succession of very different aromas and impressions between them, a layered and complex malt, it takes time to untangle this complexity. Hints of wood in the background, the peat transitions from herbaceous to fleshy, with the ash mixing in the seawater. Tobacco. Lemon. It never really ends: the alcohol content is well integrated, one could drink it endlessly to discover other aromas, other suggestions. The finish is long, with ash, sea, banana, vanilla, and spices.

Nose: genuine peat bog character, not the medicinal peat of Laphroaig or the burnt tire variety, but truly damp, earthy fire. Salt, olive oil (the rich, thick kind), cheese curds, dried wood, with just a whisper of fruit, predominantly dark cherry. Taste: cereal, hay, bitter wood, chestnut, grass, and a hint of pie crust. Experience: like eating an entire cheese board, including the wood. Cheese, olives, cured meats, salt... wood. It encompasses the entire board with all its components. But in a wonderful way. If you're seeking a meal in a whiskey, this is it.