It’s very cool that our Greek whisky friends from the Greek whisky society have also chosen to bottle a Madiera finished Kilchoman. If you remember, a sister cask was bottled by us (under the HolyDram club label) last year, reviewed here, and was quite popular among local and international whisky lovers.
This one was also distilled in 2012 and bottled 2019, same as the Israeli cask, and it is very interesting to see how a sister cask would compare with our cask especially as they probably were sitting next to each other in the warehouse, from the same wood and fill… fortunately I got a wee sample of this bottling from my friends over at the GWS in Greece, thank you, guys!
Kiclhoman 2012 cask # 183/2012 ,55.6% , € 170
Nose: Starting quite dry and earthy/sooty and not very sweet, hints of fruit leather, maybe a faint jammy note, quite Smoky and sooty as well, tangerine and peat reek galore, tar, TCP and quite dirty, with the Madeira adding depth, but letting the Kilchomn distillate shine.
Palate: lots of peat smoke, pepper, earthy at times, not as sweet as the nose, some hints of boiled sweet and wine guns, sooty ashy, peat coals, a hint of rubber, cigar butts, wine tannins.
Finish: tannic, dry, peppery, grape pith.
Conclusion: Sister casks or not, this is quite different than our Kilchoman cask (for the good or bad you decide). I am not very objective here, but the Madeira influence here is not as strong as it is on the Israeli cask… I am missing the ripe blood oranges and although there’s some fruit, it’s mainly in the backdrop. At any rate, this is a very good Kilchoman indeed, with the textbook peat, soot ash earth, and spices, while the wine adding a nice touch in the background. A solid cask Strength bottling. Very enjoyable. Good job there guys.