Nose: Oatmeal, sour cream, pine-resin, sweet but reserved peaty notes. There’s an almost mescal-like vegetal aroma, a sharp flinty mineral quality, a dot of vanilla and just a hint of plastic. This smells very young and somehow dilute. There is an alcohol prickle that can be tamed by adding a dash of water. This broadens the nose slightly, but don’t add too much as it can suddenly drown and lose all presence. Palate: Briny arrival with salted lemons, ash and some sweet-and-sour cereal notes. The mouthfeel is oily but thin, and offset by the astringency of a high alcohol presence. Cabbage-water, iodine and a little pepper. It’s not a very complex palate but adding a dash of water helps here as well by bringing out quite a lot of sweetness to balance the otherwise salty profile. Finish: Medium/short. The vegetal notes tail off into a mild preserved lemon aftertaste with a little sour peat. This whisky has the sort of nose that could easily be objectionable. There are rubbery, feinty aromas but it is saved by the grace of being reserved, dry and austere. It reminds you at every juncture that it is very young. The palate likewise is narrow and the cask influence is minimal. For a whisky that is advertised as “heavily peated” the subjective peat level on this is surprisingly low, but to be fair it is also labelled “Peat in Progress” and should be tasted with those words in mind. This is not really a finished product. It’s a progress report ; a memo from the developers ; a dispatch from the front lines. Like the other Kilkerran Heavily Peated batches this is a glimpse of what will come with time, just as the “Work in Progress” expressions gave us a window onto what would eventually become Kilkerran 12. I would be very surprised if this whisky is even 5 years old, but the brilliance of a fine-cut gem is there already and I’m sure when the descendant of this whisky is released with an 8, 10 or 12 year age statement it will be very good. It’s interesting but I would not recommend this to a novice or even to an experienced but casual single-malt drinker. This expression is mostly of interest to the whisky-nerd, particularly Springbank/Glengyle geeks. “Above Average” : 81/100 (3 stars) [but one day this will be a 4 star whisky for sure]