Nose:
oak notes are dominant, followed by toasted marshmallows and dried fruit pudding, as well as cherries, marzipan and a hint of peat
Palate:
initially fruity with citrus notes and orange peel, after this: vanilla, butterscotch,
honeycomb and digestive biscuits can all be tasted and enjoyed
Finish:
velvet and smooth with lemon meringue, to conclude, there’s an oiliness and a saltiness that you’d expect from a Campbeltown dram
From Master of Malt
12-year-old Kilkerran single malt from Campbeltown's Glengyle Distillery, which reopened back in 2004. The Kilkerran 12 Year Old is lightly peated and non-chill filtered, and has been matured in a classic combination of bourbon casks sherry casks.
From The Whisky Exchange
The long-awaited first core product from Kilkerran – a 12-year-old. This lightly peated whisky has been aged in combination of 70% bourbon casks and 30% sherry casks. The distillery was reopened in 2004 after being closed for almost 80 years, and this bottling has been eagerly anticipated ever since.
Whisky Resource Note
The Kilkerran Official Website has very limited / poorly updated information about their bottle releases.
The whisky page does give tasting notes as above but no further information.
Review 39 follows a quesion from one of our YouTube channel subscribers.
Kilkerran is one of the three Campbeltown Distilleries.
If you don't know them there are Glen Scotia, Glengyle and Springbank who do Spingbank, Hazelburn and Longrow. Glengyle and Springbank are owned by Mitchell family.
Kilkerran 12 Year old is bottled at 46% abv with an average retail price of £37.20.
It is non chill filtered and natural colour, as such recieves a excellent value score of 96.90/100
It is matured as a split of 70% bourbon and 30% sherry casks.
On the nose it is the destinct Campbeltown sea spray note of salt and peat intertwinned into this dominant note, that is glorious.
It is sweet with peat and vanilla presents with some fruit, maybe citrus. The alcohol doesn't reveal itself too much.
On the palate, the flavour is not as expected.
It starts with a peat tang of citrus, then comes a sweet wood, it is reminiscent of damp sawdust with a bitter sweetness. There is vanilla and caramel, but its not too sweet. The Campbeltown character is there, but its not as present as some other whiskies from the region. There is malt, maybe barley with a little cream.
With water the nose becomes more salt and vanilla, influence from the bourbon casks . On the palate there is more of the campbeltown influence with more salt and peat showing up. It also more fruity with orange and lemon showing themselves.
It is very much a Campbeltown character whisky, but this dram wasn't what I was expecting, not in a bad way, having looked at the tasting notes I was expecting more rich fruit from the sherry influence.
This whisky is aimed more at an intermediate whisky experience. In terms of smoke/peat level it isn't too intense, but it is noticably more than a lighly peated or smoked whisky. For an overall score we give it 88/100.