Kilchoman Feis Ile 2016 (56.6%, OB, Oloroso Butt #429/2007, 637 Bottles, 2016)

• Category: Islay single malt scotch whisky
• Distillery: Kilchoman
• Bottling: Kilchoman Distillery Company
• ABV: 56.6%
• Cost: £90

What they say:

Feis Ile 2016, this Kilchoman is matured in a Oloroso Butt cask number 429/2007.

Limited release of 637 bottles.

Colour – Dark burned copper
Nose – Smoky and spicy with deep rich sherry flavours.
Palate – Integrated and powerful. Viscous almost spyrupy, lots of cooked fruits and citrus notes.
The finish is rich, layered and well balanced with a smooth smoky aftertaste.

Bottled 20th May 2016, Distilled 13th December 2007.

From Kilchoman Distillery

What I say:

Bottled for Kilchoman Open Day during Feis Ile 2016. This was Dram #4 from Moxie’s Festivus for the rest of us #2 (2016 edition). A rare chance for those unable to make either the Campbeltown Malts Festival or Feis Ile (Islay Festival of Malt & Music) to sample some of the bottlings that were exclusively on offer. Distilled in 2007 and bottled 2016 this has spent over 8 years in an Oloroso sherry butt.

Colour:

24ct gold, copper highlights (11/20) numerous large tears, oily

Nose:

Creamy vanilla milkshake, spiced, leathery, peat smoke & icing sugar, TCP, surgical spirit, iodine/germolene, hospital waiting rooms, dusty, earthy, tobacco & herbal pipe smoke, dusty peat ash, embers, cigarette smoke

Taste:

Fruit and smoke, medicated cherry cough drops, dark & red fruits, berries, maraschino and black cherry, smoky ash, mid-sweet, spun sugar, toffee, hint of ginger spice, peat smoke, iodine, peat ash

Finish:

Long sweet and ashen, dry almost rubbery (not sulphuric – just dry old rubber)

Overall:

Heavy on the peat and light on the fruit but plenty of lovely cherries, powerful, almost brutal on the palate but in a very pleasing kind of way. Wonderful stuff from the oldest sherry cask bottled by Kilchoman!

Score: 86/100

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