There are some whiskies that somehow manage to become a part of the furniture in your house, that manage to embed themselves in your brain never to be forgotten and on drinking feel familiar, settling and nostalgic. Today’s dram up for review is one of those whiskies. Its criminal really that it has taken me this long to get round to reviewing it, but today we right that wrong and review a fantastic whisky.
That said, I will do my best not to be reverential, to be honest and to judge the dram on this drinking, with no preconceptions. If that is ever possible?
Aroma: Briny, Smoky and Peated.
Taste: When I first tasted this whisky, I was so wary of it. It smelt like some of the more well known peated whiskies that I had drunk previously and was expecting to be slapped in the face with TCP, wrangled about by the peat and spat back out. What you get here is much subtler, much classier and much more restrained.
Actually, at first this is a sweet, light flavoured dram. Its first flavour notes are heathered and honeyed, which draw my mind back to family summer holidays on a Scottish Island. The wind whipping across my face, pulling the pollen of the moor up into the nostrils.
As the light, golden liquid sits in the mouth and develops, the peat and smoke arise from the depths of the dram, they swirl and mingle together on the tongue, they are sharp, but smooth. They are complemented by sweet fruity notes and nutty notes, something like roasting chestnuts. This middle flavour combination is also medicinal, but not in a clinical way, more of a soothing, healing way.
This middle flavour numbs the tongue, warms the throat and sits there, purring like a contented cat in front of a log fire. This is drying, but because of the inherent sweetness of this whisky it is never anything less than a delight.
Mouthfeel: Punchy and Strong, but also always cultured and calm.
Overall: So, I admit this reads more like an eulogy than a review, but I just love this whisky that much. The only thing that I can think to say that is negative, is that the last person I shared this dram with didn’t love it, quite as much as me. A visit to Kilchoman is definitely on my bucket list (If a perfectly healthy thirty something should even have one!)
Aroma: 17
Start: 17
Middle: 18
Finish: 17
Value: 17
Overall: 86/100
More Information: Kilchoman Single Malts
Available: Amazon
We reviewed @Kilchoman05’s Machir Bay… Although its less like a review and more like a eulogy… https://t.co/XRYzL7JAPh #islay #whisky
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