cascode
Kilchoman Rum Finish Single Cask
Single Malt — Islay, Scotland
Reviewed
June 27, 2019 (edited August 27, 2022)
Kilchoman tasting evening at The Oak Barrel, Sydney, June 25th 2019: Whisky #6
Tasted from bottle 177/241. Cask filled 7 April 2011. Bottled 20 February 2019
Nose: The first impression is of dark fruit (dried dates and figs crusted with natural sugars), treacle tarts and a light hint of rum. This is quickly followed by fruity smoke that continues to expand throughout the tasting. Then spice tones appear - cinnamon, vanilla and caraway. The nose shifts its focus as it unfolds, with layers of aromatic fruit, smoke and spice building over a caramel and malt foundation.
Palate: The arrival is sweet and smoky and it's hard to say which is the dominant note. Then an array of fruit and nuts arrives - dates, figs, apricots, sultanas, almonds and orange peel all stewed in a sauce of honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom. Vanilla caramel appears with a little chocolate as the palate moves towards the finish. The texture is rich, warm and enfolding - somewhere between creamy and oily. There are sweet sugary notes and little hints of rum throughout but they never become sickly or cloying.
Finish: Long, slow, complex and lingering. Fruit compote, toffee, vanilla, milk chocolate and fragrant smoke.
A successful whisky of elegant complexity that is also very approachable. Every aroma and flavour is clearly defined but it presents as a coherent whole. It is a little like Machir Bay would be if you could amplify it in every dimension. Like most cask-strength whiskies it is immediately impressive but requires time to fully unfold, and dilution assists this process. I thought it was at its best taken down to a little under 50%abv.
The smoky character develops particularly well, evolving from a mild background aroma to an assertive peat-reek with no plastic or rubbery tones. The sweet notes definitely bring rum to mind but they sit comfortably with the distillate. It is a clean and well-defined finish and by no means heavy-handed.
Kilchoman has produced several single-cask rum-finish whiskies recently, but they are not at all the same. The versions available at the distillery door and in Europe are slightly stronger and finished in ex-Bajan casks, whereas this version (available exclusively in Australia) was finished in an ex-Jamaican rum cask that provided 241 bottles. Given that the rum cask was most likely originally a bourbon cask this is therefore essentially an 8 year old fully bourbon matured cask-strength whisky with a "seasoning" of rum, and it works brilliantly.
I very much hope that Kilchoman continues to explore rum-cask maturation as, for me at least, it suits their new-make spirit very well indeed. I'm the proud owner of bottle number 225.
"Excellent" : 88/100 (4.5 stars)
200.0
AUD
per
Bottle
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@cascode Interesting. I’ve had the Ardbeg and the Balvenie, and I have a sample of a Springbank rum cask in in the bunker.
@Richard-ModernDrinking I've had 5 rum-finishes that I have notes on - in order of quality: Aldi Glen Marnoch rum cask finish (1.5) ; Teeling Small Batch (3) ; Balvenie 14 Caribbean Cask (3.5) ; Glenfiddich 21 Reserva (3.75) ; Ardbeg Drum (3.75/4) [I've not reviewed the last two here - I only have a score and scrappy notes from an informal tasting]. This beats them all, hands down. Imagine a cross between the Balvenie and Ardbeg, but more subtle than either.
Fascinating. Have you had any other rum cask finishes that you can benchmark it against?
Great review and Interesting... didn't even realise they did a rum finish..