Kilchoman Madeira Cask Matured (2015 Edition)

Nose: Strong peppery wood smoke, like the aftermath of a bushfire rather than mellow peat smoke. A softer peat gradually emerges through the haze together with a powerful winey note. These dominant aromas tend to swamp the nose. Palate: Dense smoke, blazing hot white pepper and ginger, dusty dark chocolate, peat, fortified wine, raisins, prunes. A little harsh and hard. Finish: Medium. Lingering smoke, wine and dry dark chocolate. It’s not likely that you’ll still find this anywhere, so this review is more for historical interest. In 2011 Kilchoman filled 17 first-fill ex-madeira casks as an experiment. I bought my bottle in 2016, which is the year after I believe it was bottled, so it had spent 4 years in very active and strongly-seasoned oak. That’s a lot of time for the residual fortified wine and some cask elements to be absorbed, but hardly any time for serious maturation of the spirit. I can’t help but feel that it would have worked better to give the whisky 4 years in good bourbon casks and then half a year of finishing in the madeira wood. Not surprisingly it gave me the impression of being undeveloped and awkward – a fresh young whisky covered with a dense blanketing layer of wood smoke and thick wine, but everything being disjointed, argumentative and restless. The heavy smoke seemed to improve with oxidization but it never achieved a really cohesive state with the wine element. In the end this whisky came across as a failed experiment and it’s not surprising that they have not repeated it since. At $180 it was also quite expensive. Kilchoman (who produce some whiskies that I particularly like) have since gone on to perfect their strategy with both Loch Gorm and Sanaig which are far more subtle and evolved products – buy one of those and don’t bother searching out this old Madeira expression. You’ll occasionally see a positive review but even for collectors I wouldn’t recommend it. "Adequate” : 73/100 (2.25 stars)