Kilkerran 8yo Cask Strength 2025 Release
Bourbon Cask Matured | 55.6% ABV
Score: 7/10
Very Good Indeed.
TL;DR
Already good; but gets even better with patience and a drop of water
Is a little bottle-chasing healthy?
I remember the moment it dawned on me that whisky was made in batches. And also what that meant.
I don’t just mean malt whisky; distilled in batches. I’d worked out that ‘boiling’ it in big copper kettles had to be done in batches; that they’d distill twice - or thrice - and fill a spirit receiver, waiting for the next load of hoggies, barrels, butts or barriques. I knew that bit.
I’m speaking about the batch process that is making up the actual bottle outturns.
It was a little after Christmas, I think around 2011. We weren't long in our new home and we were invited into our neighbour’s house where they quickly learned I liked whisky. I think, upon arrival, I might’ve said “I like whisky” maybe even before saying hello. I think I still do that.
My neighbour was delighted and he poured me his favourite; a Cragganmore Distiller’s Edition. As he poured he said something that struck me “I can’t always get this, so when I see it I buy a couple”.
That seemed odd to me. But of course, buying whisky online wouldn’t really have been a thing for him. As a keen fisherman he’d spend a lot of time in Speyside and travelling north to the Highlands. En route, he’d stop by one of the Pitlochry whisky shops and grab it there. Sometimes they’d have it, other times not.
The next dram was offered by his wife. As she poured she explained this was from a distillery who employed all their staff locally and eschewed technology and efficiencies in order to ensure maximum job creation. Of course, it was Springbank and it’d been a while since I’d enjoyed anything from there. She’d bought it for her husband’s Christmas present and was surprised he didn’t like it as much as his favoured Speysider. She hoped I’d enjoy it a little more. And I really did.
It was their ten year old and it was beautiful. The second I sipped it, I resolved to head out and get a bottle that weekend.
Now, for context, this was close to 15 years ago. The Springbank chasing madness was yet to manifest and I fully expected my local specialist to simply have it there waiting for me. None of you will be surprised to hear the words that greeted my enquiry “Sorry we don’t have any”.
After asking when they’d likely get a restock the, somewhat glib, reply was simply “When the next batch is released, we’ll get our allocation then”.
You may imagine my naive thoughts: Batches? Allocation? This isn’t sitting in a warehouse someplace?
I don’t recall what I might’ve bought instead, but a few weeks later I made sure to drop by and pick up a Ten when it did arrive back in stock. Back in the good old days when they’d announce it on socials; “Roll up! Roll up!”
Of course, it perhaps wasn’t the only release to sell out fairly quickly; occasionally it happened with other releases back then. Diageo’s annual Special Releases might have disappeared from retail shelves, along with a few others, but generally it quickly became clear that if it was Springbank I was after, I’d need to start paying a lot more attention.
A few years later Daftmill joined the hard-to-find fray and there was a sense things were hotting up, especially on secondary, for the ‘good stuff’.
It’s odd to think of that now, that you could count on your hand the releases that you really needed to be fast out of the blocks for. But it wasn’t quite peak FOMO. Not yet. Truth be told, even if you were slow, somebody, somewhere, knew someplace with some stock. You could generally source what you were after.
It didn’t last though. Even before the pandemic things got trickier, but when Covid locked us behind our keyboards things went nuts. So much so that, when Ardnamurchan was released in late 2020, that same retailer had a queue out front. They were selling it straight from the boxes on the floor. And Springbank? You were having a laugh. Kilkerran? Sames.
Yet just this very week I was visiting that very same retailer. They’re the best at what they do, still. On the shelf they had most of the up-to-date Ardnamurchans and Kilkerrans and, while they weren’t on the actual shelf, they still had a few Springbanks. This is days after the allocation has landed. In the cabinet sits a Winter 2011 Daftmill alongside its 15yo Cask Strength sibling. And while it may be redundant to state the fact - because they are of course an ethical retailer - everything was at retail prices.
This is odd, a little. Yes, things have perhaps moved back towards how they once were. It does seem a little different and I hope it’s just me, but I feel like a little of that wild-eyed enthusiasm during the craziest times was actually pretty exciting. It wasn’t all about FOMO; there was a genuine buzz around whisky and anything new or part of the zeitgeist. Even in the before-times, we were a little less jaded and it feels like there was a little more balance to things. Of course, I’m a miserable sod and never happy - but despite whisky ‘coming back to us’ a little, I do see that things are different.
Because, if the really good and in-demand stuff is hanging around, can you imagine how difficult it is for anything that’s a little more pedestrian?
We are living through another sea-change in whisky and, despite my best efforts, I can’t see where it’s going. Not clearly. I know I’d take balance if we could have it, but whisky - with a minimum three year lead-time - is intrinsically difficult to manage.
I was chewing this over as I drove home with today’s bottle tucked in the car’s door bin. Could be true to say that whisky is at its most exciting when there’s just a little less supply than demand?
Review
Kilkerran 8yo Cask Strength, Bourbon Cask Matured, 2025 Release, Bottle code 18.11.24, 24/262, 55.6% ABV
£67.50 and still a few around at time of writing
This cost £67.50 and was plucked from the shelf while another four bottles were waiting behind it. However the retailer, Glasgow’s finest Good Spirits Co, had a - still necessary - one bottle per customer policy.
The price has crept up a little, from £55-60 for the 2023 release. Not insane, but we’d all do well to keep an eye on that. We love ‘em, but we gotta keep ‘em honest.
Score: 7/10
Very Good Indeed.
TL;DR
Already good; but gets even better with patience and a drop of water
Nose
It’s a smoky greeting. More so than I remember from any other previous 8yo. I pour a glass of 2023’s release to confirm it’s true, although it could be that a few weeks (months?) of the 2023 being open has allowed its smoke to settle. Still, it’s a surprise. It fades from a light soot into a mineralic and salty tang, with fresh and sweet apples and pear backed up by orange zest and a dense marmalade-y edge. Leaf mulch too, which I think is what some would suggest is farmy. For me it’s the malt-floors. It suggests a broody edge. Earthy too.
With water (recommended) it seems to round out nicely but also exaggerates an oaky wood-spice. This is a little darker than the 2023. No bad thing.
Palate
Tangy arrival of salty grapefruit; orange zest and oily, thick-cut marmalade. Coastal minerals everywhere: pebbles, pumice, slate and limestone; all of it is imaginable. I need to lick less stones.
There’s a cracked pepper heat that settles nicely with water, the grapefuit persists but it’s easy to find white, crisp orchard fruits, lemon and more orange if you sit a while. With that water (and time) it really stretches its legs.
Water may not be your thing, but I implore you to play with it if you have this on hand; just a half-teaspoon in a small pour is enough to make it hum. Everything ‘rounds out’ before leaving a slightly dry yet fizzy finish.
The Dregs
Full disclosure. I re-wrote last-night’s tasting notes tonight after my first pour tonight, but now I’m on my third pour. I just love Kilkerran malt whisky. It’s beautiful.
But I need to convey just how delicious this is with water. It’s not the same as it being diluted at the point of bottling (being cask strength this is clearly not diluted at all); it’s adding your own water at home; it’s chemistry in real time - and you taste it. Spice and fizz are at first exaggerated before they settle into a softer, more accessible nose and palate. It makes it moreish too.
All of the above is layered on top of a lovely, funky, dense backbone of fairly unique malt whisky. Can we simply rejoice that Glengyle is alive and vibrant? It tells a tale that, while I was booking my events for this year’s Campbeltown Malts Festival, I spent far too much time dwelling on the Kilkerran events. I think everyone should be aware I’m reviewing one of my all time favourite malt whiskies.
The headline score stays exactly as I set last night - and tonight after my first pour. But now, in this lovely warm and fuzzy moment after my third, it’s an 8. If it wasn’t a week night I’d pour another and before you know it I’d be screaming a ten and frightening the cat.
Anyway, back to the story in hand and my preamble; sorry if it reads like a tale of me never being happy, because that’s not true. I am.
Not only was I genuinely thrilled that I could stop by at my leisure and still have recently-released shelf treats waiting, I was also excited by the reaction from whisky pals. A quick pic of the bottle was shared with a few and, by the time I’d driven home, my phone was alight with enthusiastic messages.
It would seem that, for the most part, those who cared also managed to grab one, and everyone was quick to share their individual take. This means something terrific; bottles being freely opened once more. We’re relaxing again.
Certainly, that’s true for me. Despite the fact I still have a decent chunk of 2023’s Kilkerran 8yo Bourbon Cask Matured on hand - a back-up bottle also only recently opened - I had this popped the same evening it passed the threshold.
I am also aware that the theme I’ve chosen here might be eerily similar to other J&A Mitchell review themes here on Dramface; such are the challenges we have faced in recent years. It seems that’s the kind of reaction it elicits. But I sense it’s changing.
Once more, for those who care, and those with the means and determination, we can have our good stuff back again. It’ll still remain a little under-supplied, no doubt it will take effort, either by primary or secondary, but right now things are sane and no one I know - locally - is paying over retail.
We still feel a little of that FOMO; a frisson of excitement that it’s here, but in some respects it feels like a little healthy balance has been restored.
I hope that’s not just the optimistic glow from dram three.
Score: 7/10 8/10. 🥴
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. WMc
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