Kilkerran 8yo Sherry Cask
2024 Cask Strength | 57.4% ABV
Who’s the Bigger Fool?
We all love a good bargain. To me, the enjoyment of a whisky can be either enhanced when I feel I struck a good deal or it can ‘suffer’ a bit when paying top dollar and feeling it doesn’t rise to the occasion.
That knife very much cuts both ways. I understand why I’m looking at a €70-ish price tag for something like Springbank 10 opposite a BenRiach of the same age which will be about €25-€30 cheaper. And still pick up and bring home the Springer.
I’m not dissing BenRiach here, but intrinsic quality, availability and personal preferences all come into play, especially after over a decade of whisky geekery and flavour chasing.
For people just dipping the toe into the whisky pool (or rather I should say ‘whisky ocean’ at this point), a €30 price gap between two bottles of similar age will of course make absolutely zero sense.
Newbie or not, the same ‘WTAF’ (pardon my French) feeling still befalls me when I see ludicrously overpriced bottles of Ardbeg, Laphroaig, Glendronach or anything Springbank all over the internet – be it from web shops or auction sites. And obviously a lot of these inflated prices are down to the secondary market, because at some point official retailers will do the maths and start jacking up prices as well.
We ‘re now at a point where we even see it happening on the websites of some of the actual distilleries. Looking at you here, Glengoyne.
It often makes me wonder: who is the bigger fool?
Those still charging a fair price, setting the price tag more or less in line with the MSRP. This is actually an important and interesting term: Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price; it’s pretty self-explanatory and indicates at which point a producer sees a fair margin of profit for the retailers who put it on their shelves?
Or is it those of us who are willing to ignore the fact that there are fewer and fewer stores out there who actually live by the MSRP guideline and cough up whatever number it is a shop is slapping on a price tag?
Now I get that some bottles will sell like hot cakes, pretty much regardless their price, and can therefore make up for some of the dusties in these stores – bottles which seem to be glued to their shelves since no one ever picks them up (although there’s the possibility they too might be overpriced and no one will buy them as a consequence).
Whisky might be an expensive hobby, but for retailers, especially independently owned stores, it’s a continued investment – they will need to stock new releases to keep customers happy, regardless of how much stock of other stuff might still be sitting there. And in those cases (speaking for myself here) I am often more than happy to allow these stores a fair bit of leeway when it comes to determining their prices as long as they keep things reasonable.
Review
Kilkerran 8yo, Sherry Cask, Batch 10, 2024 release, Oloroso Cask Matured, 57.4% ABV
£53 (MSRP)
It's likely that those stores stocking whisky at the actual MSRP do so because it’s not their prime source of income. Wine stores or other drinks stores who offer a small but quality>quantity selection of whisky or other spirits, grocers or, in some cases, even an independently run supermarket will often bring in some cases of whisky and just stock them with that MSRP price tag on it. Either because they are happy with it and don’t know any better, or they will refrain from charging a 50% inflated price because they know they won’t sell as their prime customers are by and large not there to pick up whisky.
They will make a profit selling them, but by no means are ‘cashing in’ by charging almost what the same bottle on secondary could fetch them. We could be cynical and call them the biggest fool of all, but that would be anything but fair on them.
Rather we should be grateful they still exist, as finding these either ‘unobtanium’ or super-inflated bottlings at a super fair price is what makes our hearts sing.
As is the case with this 2024 release of Kilkerran 8yo which I managed to pick up for €63 and change.
Nose
Gently nutty, but the (THE) thing that immediately and obviously grabs your attention, is the rich, luscious fruitiness.
Notes of super ripe, juicy berries, blackcurrant and half a dozen other black and red fruits jump straight out of the glass, rather than the dried red fruits notes you might expect from an Oloroso cask matured whisky. All sitting happily alongside an element of oaky spiciness and a pleasant, soft, musty funkiness.
A suggestion more than actual notes of deeper, darker sensations of treacle and syrup, alongside very shy notes of dried fruit notes are hidden behind all of this and are betraying the Oloroso casks, and it seems they’re here to actually help lift that funky, juicy, yeasty fruitiness. The merest hint of smoke puts the cherry on the cake.
A few drops of water and everything gets amped up and accentuated further. This is one of those whiskies you could just pour and nose all evening, feeling utterly happy and content. Bliss!
Palate
The higher ABV shows, but even then the flavours prevail: again very rich on fruit notes, both that super ripe fruit note from the nose, but those dried fruit notes are more obvious and more present now as well.
Again everything is very well integrated. The spiciness, the oaky notes, the musty, funky Campbeltown signature: it’s all there and it’s all presented beautifully. Rather than cranking things up, adding water now helps to ‘dissect’ things, allowing me to discover the layers and (not so) subtle complexities. Particularly those deeper notes of dark fruit, treacle (rather than caramel), wood and a warming smokiness are easier to uncover instead of being thrown at you in one big delicious wave of flavours.
Also, I’m now picking up a lovely salinity here, reminiscent of the salty element you can find in liquorice. All of this and then some echoes on and on into a warming, satisfying finish.
The Dregs
Goodness gracious me! What. A. Dram!
There’s so much going on and this has so much to offer, and while it’s busy, rich and layered, to the point of becoming a ‘decadent’ whisky even, it’s never ‘stubborn’ or ‘difficult’ to access and assess. In fact, even during the small heatwave we’re witnessing here right now, I find it very hard to reach past this.
The added bonus being that I found this for the actual MSRP – around €63 and change (£53), so I bought two blind, on the assumption that if this would let me down (silly me), I could almost certainly make someone else happy with the other bottle. I am now seriously considering blowing a good deal of my whisky budget for the upcoming months on several more bottles of this.
That should tell you all you need to know, really. Perhaps the thing that impresses me the most, is the versatility Kilkerran manages to pull off time and again. I currently have the 16 yo and two of these 8year olds in the cabinet. Both are very layered and absolutely delicious, but for very different reasons. If the 16 yo is subtle and delicate, this 8yo is almost the exact opposite. Big, loud, bold, rich, and great ‘fun’.
It shows what Kilkerran can do and bring, and the fact that they are able to cater to almost any occasion and any mood with just their four different ‘core‘ range expressions they offer, is nothing short of impressive.
Sure, some batches are inevitably better than others, but a disappointing Kilkerran I have yet to cross paths with. It’s always at the very least good and interesting, and when they deliver – as is the case with this one - they deliver big time.
This recent 8yo is an absolute masterpiece in my humble opinion.
Score: 8/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. EA