Kilkerran (Glengyle) 8-Year-Old Cask Strength

Kilkerran (Glengyle) 8-Year-Old Cask Strength 55.7% abv (Released 2017). NIS 350

Kilkerran (Glengyle) 8-Year-Old Cask Strength 56.5% abv (Released 2018). NIS 350

https://www.whiskys.co.uk/distilleries/kilkerran-whisky

Glengyle Distillery

In Brian Townsend’s “Scotch Missed”, a guide book to Scotland’s lost distilleries, he describes on page 228, that Glengyle distillery was founded in the early 1870s by one William Mitchell. The Mitchell family already owned the nearby Springbank distillery. It was sold due to the great Campbeltown whisky depression in 1919 and eventually closed in 1925. The distillery buildings became a car mechanics workshop, a rifle range and eventually lay derelict, used as storage. However, in 2000 the Mitchel family who still owns Springbank to this day, hatched a plan to buy the premises and bring this long-lost distillery back to life and back into the family. Glengyle reopened in 2004.

According to Ralfy Mitchell of Ralfy.com fame, the owner of Springbank felt he had to open another distillery in the Campbeltown area as there was a danger of Campbeltown losing its status as one of the official Scottish Whisky regions, seeing as only two distilleries were left operating in the peninsula. (The other being Glen Scotia, owned by the Loch Lomond company). The minimum requirement is apparently three distilleries, hence the necessity to reopen Glengyle. (I have yet to see this story confirmed). In its heyday, Campbeltown had some 26 distilleries operating. By 1885 it was down to 20 and by the 1930s, it had been reduced to just three.

https://www.whiskys.co.uk/distilleries/kilkerran-whisky

The Glengyle stills

The name Ben Wyvis, according to Scotch Missed by Brian Townsend, page 33-34, has been used twice as a Speyside distillery. The first time was near the village of Ferintosh, on the road to Dingwall, from 1879 to 1893. The second time was from 1965. Not really a single malt distillery in its own right, the malt whisky stills sat in a building inside the Whyte & Mackay Ltd Invergordon Grain distillery complex. The malt whisky was not surprisingly used exclusively for Whyte & Mackay blends although some Ben Wyvis did escape out into the wild as single malt but is probably only to be found in historical whisky collections today. The facility was dismantled in 1977. The stills were stored in a warehouse for 27 years until they were bought by William Mitchell and transported to their new Glengyle distillery in Campbeltown. The old Ben Wyvis stills were once again back in use.

So why isn’t the whisky called "Glengyle" 8-Year-Old Cask Strength?

The brand name had long ago been sold off and is currently owned by the Loch Lomond Distillers company which was selling a Blended whisky under the name “Glengyle”. (Ironically, the Scotch Blend was also labeled "Glengyle 8-Years-Old").

Consequently, the Mitchell family decided to call the bottled whisky they produce at Glengyle distillery - “Kilkerran”, which is actually the original Gaelic name for the town of Campbeltown.

 

Packaging Design

Talk of simplistic understatement or classic British minimalism in design. Plain is not the word when it comes to these Kilkerran cans and bottles. In the pure minimalist style, the artwork uses loads of squares and straight lines. The label is printed almost entirely in old-fashioned “printing press” black ink on a white background. The only colour employed is orangy-red which screams out the words “Cask Strength” in a semi-circle, above and around the large number 8 printed in the bottom centre, reminiscent of some hand ink stamp. The picture in in the centre top is comic book pencil artwork like. The two vertical bars running down the picture, effectively dividing it into three plates, looks to me as if we are looking out at this church clock tower from a dingy prison cell.

The design “develops” further by adding the distillery name around the drawing as if the whole label design had been conceived on a white serviette and pencil over a pint in the pub.

One final point. The inside of the canister of the older 2017 (55.7% abv) version contains a little piece of cardboard which looks like it was an afterthought, added to prevent the bottle from rattling. Presumably, there was a lack of communication with the canister tube designer as to the exact diameter of the bottle and the can ended up being made far too wide. I have never seen this before.

I suppose in line with this minimalist approach is the text itself, which contains little marketing blurb and almost all informative details about this whisky. The only exception which runs completely counter to the rest of the text is this really absurd statement which reads “matured in Oak Casks”. In fact, all Scotch whisky has to be matured in Oak casks by law! I could understand if the expression uses a number of different type casks but according to the website, this 8-Year-Old is matured exclusively in Ex-Bourbon casks. So why on earth don’t they mention this really important fact on the label or box? Moreover, according to all the reviews, the expression is slightly peated, some claiming around 15 PPM.  It would have been nice had they printed in the same black ink “15 PPM” running down the side.

Colour and Look

A typical bright chardonnay and fresh golden barley colour, typical of choice Ex-Bourbon casks. I’d guess either First-Fill or a combination of First-Fill and Refill Ex-Bourbon casks.

You can tell a High Alcohol abv Whisky by examining the beads

You often see YouTube reviewers shaking or vigorously swirling the whisky in the glass and then holding it up to the light to examine the beads, tears or legs of a whisky.

I’m sure that many reviewers do the beads/tears/legs test at the beginning of every review because they’ve seen Whisky Ambassadors or other reviewers performing the swirling (or shaky-shaky) ceremony, but in truth, they really have no idea what purpose it serves. They’ll say something like “Ah, look at those beautiful beads/tears/legs of alcohol running down the glass...” or something similar and it is supposed to mean something to us.

By the way, I personally avoid the use of the word “legs” and instead either use “beads” or “tears”, ever since I witnessed the embarrassment of a prominent YouTuber. The poor guy held the glass up to the light to examine and then comment favourably upon the quality of the beads of this 18-Year-Old (whisky) which he was reviewing. You could immediately see his face contort and his cheeks go red as he realised that his comment could be interpreted in another way.

So, why look at the beads/tears?

According to Charles MacLean, in his 1997 “Malt Whisky – The Complete Guide”, he explains that when beads of whisky remain glued to the inside of the glass and refuse to drop, it is a sure sign that the whisky was bottled at 50% abv or more. In other words, Cask Strength or near Cask Strength. With lower alcohol whiskies at around forty something percent abv, you see the beads fall straight down. After years of experience, I can confirm Charles MacLean’s statement. I once guessed the name of a 48% abv whisky simply by its particular smokiness and the way the beads ran around the inside surface of the glass and then slowly fell back into the reservoir of the glass.

What do the beads tells us about this Kilkerran 8?

Swirling the Kilkerran liquid around in my trusty Glencairn, you could be forgiven for thinking I had some bicycle oil in the glass. The liquid was dense with long oily beads or tears slowly curling around the contours of the inside of the glass like a long chain of pearls. Even after the whisky at the bottom of the glass had settled, the pearl chains remained glued to the inside of the glass, refusing to descend. A sure sign that we were dealing here with a cask strength single malt.

Nose

Before we begin, I’d like to confess that I made a basic newbie mistake the first time I poured this Kilkerran into my glass. I forgot to smell the empty glass to make sure it does not have any bad residual smell. My initial smelling notes were floral with a more than slight chloride and dirty water swimming pool smell. Experience has taught me that these smells might have come from a tainted glass so I took another Glencairn from the whisky cabinet, smelled it to make sure it was properly clean and had no smell, then poured the contents of the first glass into this one. Instantly, the swimming pool odour had vanished. I went back to the first glass and Yep! The 100 metres breast-stroke was still going on. Moral of the story. Please remember to smell the glass before pouring your whisky into it!

Now, with a clean glass I continued.

I brought the glass to my nose quickly took it away before this cask strength whisky completely burnt the inside of my nose. It certainly has a high alcohol punch to it.

I added a few drops of water. It was still really potent but surprisingly, what hits the nose first is this massive floral perfume nose rather than what you would expect, that is, the peat. The peat is present but it sits under the more dominant floral notes. Intriguing indeed. The peat and wood smells seem to combine to conjure up an image in my mind of freshly cut wood in a carpentry factory with the smell of burnt wood from the industrial electric saw. The peat smoke does not stand out on its own. Instead, the Smokey element of the peat is combines with a fresh wood smell and the peat earthiness is combined with the floral notes.

Next, it reminded me of those cans of travel sweets with yellow apples and tropical fruits covered in that powdered sugar.  Sweet juicy yellow fruits and white-wine spirit with honey-dew melon, banana, freshly cut pineapple, bitter earthy farm honey and freshly crushed vanilla pods,

I didn’t want to drown this Kilkerran but I felt the urge to add a tiny drop more water as there was still, even after 15 minutes in the glass, quite a potent nose pinch. I left the malt for another 5 minutes and then took another whiff. Ahh! Much better. Wow, all those sweet yellow fruits were now at the forefront, along with the peat influence. The floral and white wine smells had been demoted to the back. Adding water had made a dramatic difference. Now, my imagination was conjuring up visions of a Barbeque on the beach. Smoke chicken breast and pineapple shish kebab on a wood skewer, with a glass of passion, banana and mango juice. Perhaps a hint of sweet moist fruit pie pastry as well? A slight sherbety “Space Dust” confectionary sugar lemon aroma at the end. Hmm, truly scrumptious.

It has a fresh sweet air just after a rain fall with a slight smell of wet earthy mud and wet flowers. Light and fresh fruits combined with freshly cut wood.

Mouth Texture

Excellent full mouth feel. It coats the mouth with flavour. It is slightly oily like light chicken fat with Jacob’s Cream crackers flaky texture in the mouth.

 

Taste

Lemon and banana tangy. There is something slightly sour about this as well not dissimilar to stewed baking apples, sultanas and rhubarb with a drizzle of honey and vanilla cream on top? Jacob’s Cream crackers. Roasted Barley and treacle cereal and vanilla cream snacks. Some of that spirit is still there giving this whisky a fruity white grapes brandy flavour. There is a mineral stone mountain water taste about this as well. Just the beginning of some wood vanillin and spice flavours on the medium to short finish.

You know what. I’m going to add some more water and wait another 5 minutes! If you wish to get the most out of your whisky purchases, you need patience and time. Don’t rush it. Enjoy the experience and relax.

A comparison of the 2017 55.7% abv edition and the 2018 56.5% abv edition

Whenever I have compared the same expression from different editions or vintages, there have always been sometimes subtle and often huge dereferences. (For instance, see my Lagavulin 12 Editions comparison of seven bottles from 2011 to 2017). However, with these two bottles on the other hand, even straight after opening the 2018 edition, it was immensely difficult to tell them apart. Upon first opening, the new 2018 edition was more closed on the nose and perhaps slightly more potent when it came to spirit alcohol burn on the throat. However, a week after opening, even those differences disappeared and I honestly cannot tell the two bottles apart. Being that they are both 8 Years old and distillation and barrel filling took place a year apart, it’s unlikely that they would have used the same barrels from the exact same source. Moreover, we see that the Angel’s Share was slightly different for these two editions, (hence the slight difference in alcohol volumes between the edition). Nevertheless, I still, in all honesty, cannot tell them apart.

So, the long and the short of it is, the tasting notes in this review refer to both editions.

Conclusions

Whisky Newbies should stay well clear of this whisky. Glenlivet it is not! You need a lot of time, patience and (if this doesn’t sound too pretentious), some awareness of the distilling and maturing process to fully appreciate the unique character and flavour of this Kilkerran. At Eight Years old, in my opinion, it’s a touch too young to appeal to a wider audience, lacking the roundness which a few more years in the cask would undoubtedly give it. Another four years would smooth out and tone down those harsh spirit notes, increase the wood spices and vanilla and remove those banana bubble-gum aromas and flavours which are typical of young single malt. However, then you would lose some of the pure spirit mineral fruitiness and barley characters. So, with the right amount of water added and at least an hour to spare, this is a very pleasant, refreshing aperitif and will teach you a lot about the DNA of Campbeltown single malt.

Kilkerran do do a 12-Year-Old Cask Strength but unfortunately, it’s matured in a combination of 70% Ex-Bourbon casks and 30% Sherry casks! What a shame. I would have loved to have tried this exclusively Ex-Bourbon release at 12 Years. I would make an educated guess that it would be simply amazing.