Kilchoman Fèis Ìle 2022

Step out of your time machine in 2006 and you’ll find people clamoring for Nintendo’s new Wii device and debating Google’s jaw-dropping splurge on a start-up called YouTube. If you happen to rematerialise on Islay, you might discover the new Kilchoman distillery filling its first barrels of whisky. Sixteen years later, some of that oldest stock has been vatted to create its 2022 Feis Ile release. The five bourbon barrels that went into the mix have yielded a whisky that fills the nose with aromas of warm bread and sweet grainy flavors. There’s a hint of farmy, lactic notes too. Those flavors continue thickly on the palate, in the form of warm brioche dipped in sweet butter. The bready notes continue on the finish, now with honey and a dash of gentle spice. This a robustly flavored, well balanced whisky with no rough edges that I would instantly give to someone who wanted to know what Scotch tasted like. It’s more of a Speyside or Highland profile than an Islay one, if you care about such things. It’s not the most complex of Kilchomans (the forthcoming Casado that I sampled alongside this has more layers to dig into) but as an example of an elegant, classic whisky it leaves little to be desired.