Lochlea Sowing Edition Third Crop

 Lochlea Sowing Edition Third Crop

Lochlea Sowing Ed Third Crop	Data Sheet
Owner:	Lochlea Distilling Company
Barcode:	5065008253358
Price:	£50 in the UK
Available in Israel	No
Alcohol:	46% abv
Cask Types:	100% First-Fill Bourbon Barrels
Bottling Year:	2024
Age:	NAS, but estimated to be around 4-5 Years Old
Non-Chill-Filtered:	Yes
Natural Colour:	Yes
Kashrus Issues:	None
Kosher Certification:	None

Introduction

This review has been quite a long time coming.

Back in October 2024 it seemed as if I was hearing about the new distillery of Lochlea everywhere and was eager to try something from them. Being such a new and small-scale distillery, I was hardly likely to find anything from them here in Israel, so would have to order a bottle from the UK.

As it happened the very next day the opportunity presented itself to me. I was on Glasgow based “The Goods Spirits Company” internet site in order to pre-order two bottles of the exclusive “Ralfy Guest Bottling” of Single Cask Linkwood 13-Year-Old which I had been offered through Ralfy’s Patreon membership channel. Whilst on the site, purely on a whim, I did a search for any “kosher” (that is, no sherry/wine cask maturation), bottling of Lochlea that was in-stock on their site and as luck would have it, I came across this “Sowing Edition Third Crop”, with “matured in 100% First-Fill Bourbon Barrels” printed proudly on the front of its label. So, with one “click”, it was added to my order.

I sent the bottles to my parents' address in the UK as it would have cost me far too much in transport and Customs charges to have it sent to me here in Israel.

Now, Fast-Forward to March 2025, my parents came to visit us just after Purim for a simcha. Because of the on going war, they had been unable to obtain travel insurance in the UK but with a bit of effort, we found a US/Israel insurance website willing to give basic coverage.

They actually didn’t bring the Ralfy bottles with them but instead, shlepped with two bottles of Kilchoman 13-Year-Old Calvados Cask (more about this in a review coming soon, bli neder), and this Lochlea “Sowing Edition Third Crop”.

The bottles were hiding amongst my parents’ clothes. To my great shock, they emerged from the suitcases minus their boxes, due to my parents’ misguided (in my opinion), but valiant attempts at conserving luggage weight.

So, I am forced to use a stock photo of the box and bottle, courtesy of “The Whisky Exchange” website:

Due to quite a few changes going on in my life at the moment, it is only now that I’m finally getting round to reviewing this little beauty of a whisky.

The Distillery

Situated on their family-owned farm, Lochlea Distillery was established in 2018, in Ayrshire in the Lowlands, about 29 miles south of Glasgow.

No Visitor’s Centre

As the website explains, being that it’s a fully working farm as well as a distillery, it is unfortunately not open to the public. There isn’t even a distillery shop. In my opinion, that’s a shame as it’s a wasted opportunity for extra income as well as giving somebody a job.

Single Farm Estate Distillery

Similar to Kilchoman distillery on Islay, Lochlea aims to produce its whisky from ingredients sourced exclusively from its own farm. Unlike Kilchoman, they do not as yet have the facilities to malt their own barley but, according to John Campbell (the then Master Distiller when this expression was released), this might be something they’d consider in the future. In 2023, a new 'Single Estate Distillery' category was introduced at the “Icons of Whisky” Awards with Lochlea being its first award winner.

The Stills And WashBacks - Lochlea Distillery HomePage

A word about John Campbell.

John spent most of his professional career on Islay, where he was born and grew up, at the iconic Laphroaig distillery. He joined them as an apprentice in 1994 and built himself up to become the distillery manager in 2006. I have fond memories chatting with him during a Laphroaig Distillery live stream broadcast during COVID lockdown, back in June 2021.

However, soon after that broadcast, he announced that he was moving to the mainland to join the team at the fledgling distillery of Lochlea in November 2021, where he oversaw the initial production process and the first bottlings to come out of the distillery.

Then, just when John seemed to be making his mark with some excellent whisky, he announced his decision to leave Lochlea in August 2024, less than three years after joining them. It wasn't clear however, from the announcement where he'd be going next. However, in October 2024, it was widely publicised in the whisky press that John would be moving to the States to takes up the reins at Sespe Creek Distillery in California. The job of Distillery Manager at Lochlea was taken over by Darren McCormick and Jill Boyd became their Master Blender.

Quite uniquely, owner Neil McGeoch and John Campbell came up with the idea of basing their whisky expressions around a specific barley crop, grown locally on Neil's farm. This “Third Crop” Edition is made from barley whose seeds were sown in the colder months of spring. Along with his First and Second Crop editions, this Third and last crop of the year, celebrates the Scottish farm distillery calendar.

This led me to wonder if Lochlea could be the first in the Scotch Whisky Industry to state what I’d call a “Whisky Barley Vintage”, similar to a wine vintage?

Whisky Vintage Bottlings are not like Wine vintage Bottlings

Unlike a vintage statement found on a bottle of wine, where the year refers to when the grapes were harvested, a Whisky Vintage statement refers to the year the malted barley mash was distilled (and has nothing to do with when the barley was harvested as many would logically but mistakenly assume).

According to the SWA regulations, a Vintage Year statement printed on the label must include a Distillation Year and the Bottling Year in close proximity to each other. In practice, you often see printed the actual dates of distillation and bottling and not just the year. Even if only the years are stated, one can perform a simple calculation and work out the approximate age of the whisky by taking the distillation year away from the bottling year.

An example of a Vintage Statement from Kilchoman

Not only does a Vintage Statement look prestigious, it is also a clever way to allow whisky enthusiasts to easily calculate the approximate age of the whisky without the distillery having to directly state the number of years on the label with a proper Age Statement, and (as the thinking goes), potentially scaring the more casual drinker off by stating such a young age. (I personally think that this fear only exists in the minds of marketing guys and it actually wouldn't have any negative affect on sales. On the contrary, I think that transparency will always be rewarded. But what do I know?).

Unfortunately, this Lochlea Sowing Edition has none of this information on its label and so isn't even a Vintage Statement Single Malt. (Before John Campbell left, he did say in an interview on YouTube that they would be putting Age Statements on their bottles in the future. I wonder if this is still the plan?).

Whisky Barley Vintage?

So (as mentioned above), being it’s the case that Lochlea whisky is all made from a specific barley crop of a specific year, they could have used the opportunity (without inciting the wrath of the SWA’s legal department one would hope), to state some kind of “Barley Vintage Year” on the front label, similar to a classic wine vintage statement. That really would be something.

No Stated Barley Type

Most peculiarly, being that this expression is part of a series which is all about the barley crop, I’m really surprised and quite puzzled as to why they don’t state at least somewhere what the barley type is. (Perhaps they do on the box but as I said, this was thrown away). I even looked through their official website and could not find any information on the type of barley they grow, only a vague reference to the fact that they grow “Malting Barley”, as opposed to what I assume is barley used for other purposes such as for baking or animal feed?

Packaging

As I believe I mentioned earlier, my bottle came minus the box, so I can’t really comment on that. (Ahem!)

I just love the Art-Deco style barley pattern cut glass bottle. Similar to Lagg Distillery, they have gone for a solid raw wood cork stopper and real cork. I must admit that the cork stopper and bottle combination look fantastic together.

It actually looks even better if you turn the bottle upside down so that the ears of barley are pointing upwards. (Make sure that the cork top is firmly secured before trying this).

Tasting Notes

The back label actually contains some quite detailed tasting notes. I don't fully agree with them but I'm happy to say that the notes seem like an honest attempt to describe the flavour and not some nonsense made up by the marketing department. Best of all, nowhere do they mention the dreaded word "Sm**th". Baruch Hashem!

Appearance

A simply beautiful natural light barley colour with a hint of lime green to it.

Swirling this Lochlea around in my Glencairn Copita glass, it shows lovely barley oil thickness which clings to the glass in unevenly spaced globules. This is a tribute to the distillery simply "barrier filtering" the whisky as opposed to non-chill-filtration as well as bottling it at a healthy 46% abv. If truth be told, I would have said that this was higher than 46% abv, but I’m not going to bring out my Hydrometer to check it.

On The Nose

Sweet “Green” underripe white and yellow fruits, lime and rain water on freshly cut grass.

Homemade Lemon drink. Green banana. Kiwi. Green apples and yellow Custard.

When I say green, I don’t mean herbal notes, which I don't particularly care for. I know that many enjoy a slight herbal touch but it’s not to my personal taste. I don’t really enjoy what they call “Herbal teas” but I am partial to a fresh “Nana” (fresh mint) tea after my Shabbos seuda.

After a while I began to notice a slight dry note, say roasted hazelnuts?

Mouthfeel

Medium weight, soft, barley oil creamy and juicy.

Sweet and soft.

Tasting

It's light and refreshing like a green summer Chardonnay but packed with apple and kiwi fruitiness and with a touch of grassiness to it. It isn’t bitter or sour, but does have a slight drying sensation to it like the fruit surrounding the apple core. There are cereal notes as well in the form of Sugar puffs® and vanilla milk. Nutty flavours, particularly raw almonds and roasted hazelnuts.

Finish

Apple, vanilla cream pastries with a sprinkling of roasted hazelnuts and baking sugar on top.

Conclusions

I have to admit that my time with this Lochlea has been an absolute pleasure. In my opinion, too many whisky enthusiasts these days seem to be gravitating towards the heavy Peated Islays, especially the Ex-Sherry Peated Bombs, chasing those intense flavours. It’s like diving down a rabbit hole with little chance of finding your way back up to the surface again. I’ve seen this lead to Whisky burnout in so many people.

Moreover, many whisky enthusiasts tend to bypass the lighter more subtle Lowland Single Malts, considering them exclusively for the beginners or the “newbies”. With so much utterly forgettable mediocracy coming out of the larger Lowlands distilleries these days, who can blame them?

However, there are in fact an increasing amount of fantastic Lowland Single Malts out there being made by newly founded small craft distilleries, and this is one of them. Yes, it’s light but that doesn’t mean that it’s lacking flavour or complexity. What’s more, there is nothing for you to chase. The flavours are there. Just relax and let the flavours come to you.

This whisky also busts another common myth responsible for many whisky drinkers refusing to touch a Single Malt younger than 10 years old. That’s a real shame. This Lochlea, by my calculations is no more than 5 years old and could be even younger, yet it’s full of flavour, multi layered and far from suffering from its youthfulness, it celebrates it.

On the minus side, it is irritating that they have invested so much thought and money into a beautiful presentation (the bottle and cork stopper is a work of art), clearly aiming their product at the whisky enthusiast like me, as opposed to the casual Glenfiddich/Glenlivet drinker, so why no visitor’s centre? Even worse, why no Age or Vintage statement on the label or box giving us no indication of the age of maturation whatsoever? And, as mentioned above, seeing that their whisky is all about farming and the barley crop, why no mention of the actual barley type they grow? It seems that there has been a series of oversights or to be generous to them, some initial teething problems or lack of some good advice perhaps?

Despite all these gripes, I want to say Kol HaKavod to Lochlea for producing such interesting and delicious whisky at such a young age. I give this my unreserved recommendation and hope to see these bottles in Israel, Be’ezras Hashem, soon.

I see that they have another expression called the Ploughing Edition, which is also 100% Ex-Bourbon barrel matured. I'd like to give that a try at some stage.

Please Comment

As usual, comments are very welcome and will motivate me to keep churning out these reviews, delivering a much needed service of knowledge and facts to the kosher whisky drinking community. Suggestions for future reviews will be duly noted.