To make a great wine cask matured whisky, get rid of most of the wine-soaked wood. Start by shaving its inside to remove some of that stained interior. Then toast it using wood chips to caremalise the exposed wood. After that, char it - throw more fire at the damn thing. Fire good, wine bad seems to be the message. Then throw away the cask - there’s still a hint of wine in it, after all. Okay, I went a step too far, but the lesson of this successful maturation experiment seems to be that a little wine cask goes a long way. Shaving, toasting and re-charring appears on the evidence of this bottling to provide an exceptional integration between cask and whisky. The influence of the wine is evident from the hint of red berries on the nose, but there’s also sea salt that speaks to the spirit. There’s sweetness on the palate too, but it’s mainly oily, savory and spicy, even a little meaty. The berries return on the finish, which leaves a long caramel aftertaste. All in all, it’s one of the most successful red-wine cask whiskies I’ve tried, better than many of the Longrow Reds and reminiscent of the best parts of the recent Bunnahabhain Bordeaux cask. Not a typical Kilchoman by any means, but a delicious diversion generously distributed in 14,500 bottles.