Kilchoman Loch Gorm (2019 Edition)

This is a solid sherried islay. Nose is smoky peat with a bit of a funk reminiscent of an old leather recliner. Bit of brine comes through as well and is continued into the taste. Rich dark fruits, slight spicy bitterness and trademark islay salty peat. A bit like the sanaig but slightly more subtle. Nose: Islay malt, smoky phenols and woody on the nose. Bit of must. Leather. Taste: salty, smoke from burning embers. Subtle sweetness and dark fruits in the aftertaste. Somewhat bitter and lemony in the development.

At age 37, i have come to terms that there are some things i will not see in my lifetime. Maybe the Yeti, Ecuador winning the Fifa World cup or a bad Kilchoman Islay Whisky. They just make amazing whisky. This time, i had the chance to taste the 2019 Loch Gorm, which is matured in 20 different oloroso sherry casks from 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011. Only 15.000 bottles of this expression were made, and man, it is a good dram. Bottled at 46% abv, deep copper color. On the nose; just impressive. Leather, new shoes, fresh can of tennis balls, tar, moss, citric lemon, naphtalene, sand and seaweed. It is as peaty as you can imagine. On the palate, perfection. Sweet Molasses, raisins bathed in chocolate, smoke. Second sip revealed strawberries, toffee and more molasses. All the sherriness was found here, with a dim smoke surrounding it. Aftertaste is smokey. Cigarrettes, ashes, log bonfire. Very maritime. Amazing. Overall this is an amazing whisky, from the youngest working distillery on Islay, who seems to have gathered all the islay profile and added some depth and boldness with the sherriness. The palate on this is delicious. My score for it is 95 over 100. Marvelous.

Boggy and leathery. It's great.

2019 is a guess, a buddy picked up a bottle overseas last year. That being said, I'm not usually a big fan of overly smokey/peaty scotches but this one ain't too shabby. It's much better, IMO, than Lagavulin 16 which I can barely get a sip down of.

So I like or maybe even love the bay. It is one of my favorite low priced peated whiskies and as I mature as a drinker and become...well a bit of a snob it remains one that I still very much like and come back to. That said I've always kinda ignored this one due to the price and well, I'm not sure it's going to really work. So I bit the bullet, lets find out. nose - I get a distinct mint right off the bat. Heck it's spearmint. Touch of fruity elements but subtle. Then a slightly medicinal or putty clay peat. There's a lot here but it's not overly strong smelling. taste - Overly oaked, charred, BBQ, with a sweet BBQ sauce (some citrus and salty elements here for sure). That's this glass in a nut shell. The the finish is candy cigarettes, light oak, and just sugar crystals. There's a lingering slightly earthy and oak finished here too. Now I can see someone picking up some chocolate, some earth, a lot of dried leaves, and man it's menthol and spearmint all the way through. Do I like this more than the bay? Honestly, not really. It's a bit more complex and there's some older whisky in it. The higher sherry content however doesn't really help this one imo. It doesn't hurt it either, it's just a different expression. This is a HARD whisky to score. OK so talking out loud, it's insanely complex so 4 stars. The complexity has a lot to do with off and youthful notes. So maybe 2 stars? The alcohol is perfectly balanced and the whisky drinks far more full bodied and rich and intense than any 46% whisky, so 3 stars? Hell I'm going 3.25 stars here. There's a case that this is far better and a case that I'm over rating it. Overall a good buy at about 100 bucks. Really complex and a must try for peat lovers. Will I buy again? You know, I'll start buying each year's batch but maybe not backups.