Kilkerran 8 Year Cask Strength (56.2% ABV)

Nose: Mild, soft and almost floral smoke. Leather, sweet malt, brine, earth, seaweed/iodine, menthol, eucalyptus, deep rich but subtle soft fruit (apricot, peach, over-ripe orange). If 24 carat gold had an aroma, it would be like this. A great nose. Palate: A spicy and smoky arrival with cracked black pepper and chili that is balanced in the development by sweet cereal and stone fruit flavours, a little vanilla, and a touch of oak. It’s an earthy palate overall, but there is sweetness as well. Finish: Long, with smoky and sweet/salt notes, like a very mild salt licorice. Some lime zest in the finale. A really good whisky that is very similar to the Kilkerran 12 year old expression but turns up the amplitude of everything throughout. Being younger, there is a slight prominence to its smoky nature and the fruity, honey and vanilla characteristics that it shares with the 12 year old are not quite as developed. Altogether this gives it a more exuberantly fresh profile, but even so there is an elegance and assurance about it. However it’s not what I’d call a soft presentation - you engage with this whisky on its terms, not yours. Bottling it at cask strength ups the ante further, adding considerable drive to the expression. For what is a fully bourbon cask matured whisky I detected only a little vanilla, so I guess refill casks were used. It’s certainly very spirit-driven. I enjoyed this very much, but on the whole I enjoy the 12 year old 46% expression even more. Others might prefer the strength and vigour of this cask-strength version, but for me the balance in the 12 year old is perfect and more engaging. Sampled at a Sydney whisky shop tasting, January 2018. “Very Good” : 85/100 (4 stars)

I usually love whiskies from campbeltown since they often give me a little from each scottish whisky zone, the balance from Highlands, the fruitiness from speyside, the peat from the islands, the chocolate from the lowlands. And i have to say, that i've seen this bottle a lot in social media, and some whisky groups, and it always called my attention. Now i have tasted it, and i can tell you about it, in my own subjective way, because that is the way reviews work. Kilkerran actually comes from the Glengyle distillery, bottled at 56.5%abv, amber natural color. On the nose, it is great. Starts with chocolate, the switches into a little, very well balanced, smoke. Prunes, lemon, creamy vanilla. Wet grass, almond oil and meringue. Nice. After the first sip, it becomes very maritime, with saltiness overall. Toffee, orange and grapefruit appear. Champagne cola. On the palate, it is a solid dram. Dulce de leche, toffee; pepper, vanilla and salt. Powerful but pleasant. Aftertaste is long, and well delivered, even though it is very spicy. Smoke, salt, red chilli. Sulphuric; mostly salty, pleasant. Overall i believe this is a good whisky, specially for a 8yo age statement, because you don't actually feel any alcohol, or anything off-putting, and it is fairly delicious. I believe it has good tasting and aroma notes, but it feels it could be better with 2-4 years more, without losing its abv. My score for it is 89.50 over 100, and i took away for the first time 0.50 points, only to keep it under the 4.5 stars score, since it actually doesn't feel like it deserves it, even if it is a nice, pleasant dram as i recognize it is. Sláinte!

Here’s another powerful sample sent to me by my friend @Telex, from Maryland. I’ve had some pretty good luck with my rather limited experience with Kilkerran so when he offered me a young, yet powerful, cask strength- well, I had to jump at the chance. This particular offering is pale yellow in the Glencairn and doesn’t really give up much leg action, due to the high 56.2% ABV. It’s also pretty oily. The nose started with a hard hit from the alcohol, even after 15 minutes resting in the glass. There was a steady draw of sweet corn to start things out, and that made me very wary, but finally some juicy, tropical fruits came shining through in a big way. You really need to give this some time for the alcohol heat to subside. I suppose you could use water to achieve the same result, but that’s not me and we don’t need another long-winded take as to why...lol. The palate was also pretty darn hot, yet it stayed surprisingly smooth the entire sip. There’s a thick, oily mouthfeel but it’s very woodsy. The sweet fruits hang around after the swallow, but battle the heat to see which will stay longer. The finish is long and dry. Oak pepper spices and the faintest fruit notes remain while I tried to catch my breath. It’s hot, folks. I’m not sure I’d want a full bottle of this, it’s just not complex enough to get past the heat. I would have to break my own rule and add significant amounts of water to try and enjoy/finish a bottle. Thanks again to Jason for the pour. I’ll give it 3 stars at cask strength, but I believe it could be better enjoyed with water or ice, but I just don’t roll that way. Cheers, my friends.

This is a difficult one to review, this is going to take a while. Nose - It's vanilla and citrus over a light oak. Young for sure. It's really non descriptive. I've added water and it's a lot more vanilla forward, the alcohol has faded out a lot. It's just dusty oak and vanilla. Taste - Salted vanilla and absolutely brings in some raw alcohol. Water mellows things down. There's some citrus, savory elements in here. Wow, I'm really running out of words for this whisky. It's spicy salty and oaky with vanilla. This really requires water to bring out the sweetness and hid the alcohol burn, it's hot and unpleasant neat. As with so many Campbeltowns, I can't go low even with the youth and need for water. There's a really wonderful whisky under this. That said, it's ending my ability to taste whisky going forward as it's burnt my mouth. Great stuff can't recall the price but it was around 100 a bit under I think. I'll likely restock this but I'm a biased fan of this region. I doubt non fans of the region will be overly excited.

It starts very well from the color, a beautiful bright golden yellow, a real pleasure to be admired in the glass, better under a natural light. And despite its important alcohol content, alcohol does not sting on the nose, while a dance of earthy, herbaceous aromas, grafted onto a soft and sweet, almost buttery peat. It is truly amazing that the almost 56 degrees don't bite, especially thinking of other lighter whiskys in which alcohol is instead felt right away. On the palate the turbidity is accentuated, the grass gets wet with sea water always remaining on the sides of vanilla sweetness, with a touch of dried fruit and apple. Furthermore, alcohol that enhances and does not cover, accompanying the aromas with an elegance that, given its young age, can only amaze. Close your eyes and enjoy all the flavors that surround your mouth. At the end, the peat accompanies you for a long time, always with its marine note and a hint of sweetness. The empty glass to be smelled with pleasure.

This is one of my favorite distilleries. Fruit is the first prominent note on the nose. Dried banana chips, lemons, peaches, pineapples, tobacco, tea bags, hay and straw show up too. Going in neat is hot at 56.2% ABV, but not surprising. The palate brings a lot of flavors (same notes as nose), but needs a couple drops to fine tune it, more than usual. It has a nice medium mouth coat with a long woody, sourdough, and fruit salad finish. With all this talk of fruit, the theme to this dram should be "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel because of the cool claymation video. A very nice 4.0, but I think I may prefer the 12, depending on the mood. This one is great, but you have to be in the mood to work for it with the water drops.