Deanston Calvados Cask Finish 2007 12-YO vs Kilchoman 13-YO Calvados Casks

Deanston Calvados Cask Finish 2007 12-Year-Old vs Kilchoman 13-Year-Old Calvados Casks 

Deanston Calvados Cask Finish 2007 12-Year-Old	Data Sheet
Owner:	CVH Spirits Limited
Barcode:	5029704219995
Price:	£95 in the UK
Available in Israel	No
When & Where purchased:	At the Distillery back in 2022.
Alcohol:	57.4% abv
Vintage:	2007
Age	12 Years
Cask Types:	Bourbon Barrels re-racked into Calvados Casks*
Non-Chill-Filtered:	Yes
Natural Colour:	Yes
Kashrus Issues:	None
Kosher Certification:	No

* Source:

https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/67754/deanston-2007-12-year-old-calvados-cask-distillery-exclusive

Kilchoman 13-Year-Old Calvados Casks Limited Edition	Data Sheet
Owner:	Privately owned by Kathy and Anthony Wills
Barcode:	5060210708245
Price:	£85 in the UK
Available in Israel	No
Alcohol:	50% abv
Age	13 Years
Cask Types:	A vatting of Bourbon Barrels, Bourbon Octaves and 10% Calvados Casks*
Non-Chill-Filtered:	Yes
Natural Colour:	Yes
Kashrus Issues:	None
Kosher Certification:	No

* Source: Kilchoman 13 Years Old Tasting Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aZ3sFg-GnU&ab_channel=KilchomanDistillery

In Part I of this series, I gave you a brief introduction into the world of Calvados. Now in Part II, I’d like to explore the flavours produced by maturing whisky in Calvados Casks.

Single Malt Whiskies Matured in Calvados Casks

I actually own examples of Calvados Cask matured Single Malts from three different distilleries. The first is a Cotswolds Calvados Single Cask 813 which I filled myself at the distillery back in 2022.

Due to the fact that I haven’t actually opened this Cotswolds Calvados Cask yet, I obviously cannot review it. I have however, opened the second example, that is the Deanston 2007 Calvados Cask Finish which I picked up in Deanston Distillery also back in 2022. The same goes for the third example, a Kilchoman 13-Year-Old which I ordered from “The Royal Mile” whisky shop the week it was released in early 2025.

So today, I will be comparing these two Calvados Cask Single Malt Whiskies, both approximately the same age. One from Deanston and the other from Kilchoman. Being that the Deanston is a classic non-peated Highlander finished in Calvados casks and the Kilchoman is a classic Islay peaty malt of Ex-Bourbon with Calvados casks, we should get a pretty good idea of how well distilled malted barley new-make-spirit when matured in Calvados casks, is influenced by the flavours of the previous contents of the cask, that is, the Apple Cider distilled Calvados brandy.

 

Deanston Calvados Cask Finish 2007 12-Year-Old

I used to be a huge fan of the Deanston core range with their Virgin Oak, 12-Year-Old and 18-Year-Old Single Malts having had a permanent place on my shelves for many years. As soon as one bottle was nearing its end, I’d go out and replace it. (Some reviewers refer to these as “Permashelf” bottlings). Well, I will no longer be automatically replacing them and here's why.

I haven’t bought any of their core-range for over 2 years now. The Deanston Virgin Oak was always my preferred Single Malt for Kiddushim or gifts to friends, due to its budget price and excellent “Integrity” credentials. Yes, it’s a NAS whisky but non-chill filtered, Natural Colour and bottled at the very impressive 46.3% abv. That’s pretty much unheard of for a budget Gateway Single Malt. Well, we didn't know how lucky we were as, unfortunately, the price of the Deanston Virgin Oak has now shot up from Budget level NIS 120-130 to around NIS 180, so it can no longer be considered a “Budget Level” Single Malt whisky the likes of Glen Moray Classic, Loch Lomond Original and Glenmorangie 12 etc., anymore. That’s a real shame.

I still have some Deanston 12 left and would still recommend it, but again, it’s gone from NIS 180 to NIS 240. Frankly, there are far more interesting Single Malts available in that price range, so I’m not sure that when my current 12-Year-Old bottle is empty, I’ll actually bother replacing it.

As for the 18-Year-Old. This has been my greatest whisky disappointment in a long time. It used to be one of my all-time favourites. It was fantastic value for money and absolutely delicious with its yellow fruits and warm creamy woody coffee-caramel and soft spices. Unfortunately, recent batches have displayed a rather unpleasant apple vinegar smell and flavour. I’m not the only one to have noticed this. Added to that, you guessed it, there’s been a significant price hike with this one as well, from NIS 480 to almost NIS 600. Consequently, despite always having a bottle in my cabinet for the past 15 years, I won’t be purchasing another 18-Year-Old anytime soon.

I still visit the distillery every time I travel up to Scotland though. That’s because they are open on a Sunday (the day I usually travel up from Essex), and they almost always have some exceptional and interesting distillery exclusives on offer. Case in point, this Calvados Cask.

So, let’s see what this Deanston Calvados Cask Finish is all about.

Tasting Notes for the Deanston 12 2007 Calvados Finish

Packaging And Artwork

Unlike their core-range which come in round tubes, this distillery exclusive bottling comes in a very practical thick cardboard transport style padded packing box with an ink print of the distillery portrayed on the side. This seems to be a standard generic packaging you get at the distillery when you purchase any one of their Distillery Exclusives.

It certainly does an excellent job of protecting the bottle during transport or your journey back home from the distillery, although it does look somewhat at odds with the more fanciful boxes, tubes and canisters that almost all Single Malts come in. I suspect that at least some might throw these “parcel” boxes away and just display the Deanston bottle on the shelf.

In a recent “Ralfy Extras” review, he expresses the view that the Whisky Industry ought to scrap all the packaging, that is their boxes, tubes and cans and just sell the bottles as is. I understand his environmental concerns but I’m not sure that he is correct when he says that most people will simply throw the packaging away. I certainly don’t and I don’t know (at least in Israel), anyone that does.

The containers are, I’m sure, designed to be displayed, initially on the shelves of shops in order to attract buyers, but also to be proudly exhibited on shelves, within glass cabinets or inside cocktail cabinets at home. Some packages are indeed real pieces of art. After all, Single Malts are considered a luxury item like a smart wrist watch, a fancy cutlery set, a piece of jewellery or some other kind of collectable item. I would have thought that most people would keep the cases that these items came in. I can just imagine a buyer of vinyl LP records coming home and throwing away the covers and outer sleeves.

Furthermore, the containers still act as protection even in the home and can make a huge difference if you happen to live in earthquake areas. Even mild tremors can cause bottles to drop off shelves. It actually happened to me once about 10 years ago now. After a mild tremor around Half-Past Two in the morning apparently emanating from the Dead Sea area, I woke up to the bed swaying backwards and forwards as if we were floating on a blow-up bed in a hotel swimming pool when suddenly there was a loud crash as around 20 bottles of Single Malt dropped off the shelf and fell some 1½ metres to the living-room floor.

Getting up to survey the damage, expecting a pool of whisky and broken glass everywhere, my wife and I were utterly amazed to find zero bottles smashed. Some had been flung out of their containers and were now rolling around on the floor. Some of the metal cans had been dented and the cardboard boxes had been partially damaged. However, Baruch Hashem, every single bottle came out unscathed.

Besides, where would we put all our Meggilas Esther clafim if we discarded all the empty whisky tubes? (Make sure you use a tube from a kosher whisky though!)

The Deanston label artwork has not changed since it was taken over by Burn Stewart Distillers in 1990. (It’s now owned along with sister distilleries Bunnahabhain and Tobermory by CVH Spirits Ltd). I appreciate the consistency and like the distinctive and instantly recognisable look and see no reason why they should spend any money revamping this classic and proven design.

The cork stopper is a high-quality real cork with what I’m sure is a very good imitation of a varnished wood top. The only way to tell if the wood is fake (apart from cutting it open), is to put the top in your mouth and lightly grind your teeth across the surface. You should be able to tell the difference between a real wood and a plastic texture.

I learnt this trick from a jeweller friend many years ago when he taught me how to tell the difference between fake plastic pearls and the real thing. You put the pearls in your mouth and very lightly (so as not to damage them if they turn out to be plastic), grind them between your teeth. They will either have the texture of soft plastic or will have a coarse sea-shell like texture, which will tell you that it’s the real McCoy.

Appearance

A lovely dark apricot yellow-brown tint. Certainly not the usual Chardonnay yellow or straw colour you associate with Ex-Bourbon Barrel Single Malts.

Alcohol tears are of medium viscosity, displaying a nice barley oil quality.

Nosing

First impressions: Oh dear!

It immediately reminded me of some poor examples of Ex-Fino Sherry Cask Single Malt Whisky. (An acquired taste to say the least). Dry white acidic yellow fruits, bitter almond, fresh yeast and wet stinky barn hay.

It’s very spirit-y and alcohol forward, yet at the same time displays a lot of heavy cask influence. This is very strange as these two aromas ought to be mutually exclusive to each other. That is, as the liquid matures in the cask and the flavours of the oak along with the previous contents of the cask are infused into the whisky, the harshness of the new-make spirit ought to be reduced. The fact that both are present gives me the impression that the alcohol and cask have not well integrated. This is a sign that, in my opinion, the Finish in this Ex-Calvados cask has not worked as expected. Perhaps the spirit was a bit too young when re-racked into the second cask or perhaps they had left it to “finish” for a bit too long? (Just my opinion).

I came back to the glass after a few minutes. There is still a strong nail-polish remover/iodine alcohol whiff to it, mixed with Apple Cider vinegar.

It’s also slightly sulphury like the smell of a Havdalah candle just after it’s been put out by some white wine.

Not a good start.

On The Palate

Sour red apples and fresh yeast dough.

Stinky red apples fermenting in a barrel out in the open.

It’s still quite astringent in the mouth despite adding water. I ended up adding too much and destroyed the whisky completely. I poured myself another glass and started again.

There is a slight fruity combined with nutty almond bitterness and that sour apple vinegar is ever present.

Bitter grapefruit citrus and bitter chocolate with a slight lemon note.

Dry bitter honey, dry walnuts and vanilla pods.

Finish

The finish is quite long. Usually that’s a good thing but in this case, when the flavour is as sour and bitter as this, it’s not! You are left with a rather unpleasant taste in your mouth.

Conclusion

In my opinion, as an experimental project, this has not been a tremendous success. Those who enjoy their bitter grapefruits or Fino sherries, might enjoy this. Most, I suspect will not.

This was my first exposure to Calvados Casks and I wasn’t very impressed. The question I now had was; is this typical of Calvados casks or has Deanston got it wrong in this instance and it is in fact possible to successfully mature whisky in these type casks?

 

Now, to the Kilchoman review…

The Current State of Kilchoman

I’m about to criticise Kilchoman but don’t get me wrong, they still produce really excellent whisky and, in my opinion, it’s one of the best Islay Single Malts there are. Their continued dedication to quality is in no doubt. However, there has been much criticism within the online whisky-sphere recently surrounding Kilchoman’s outrageously high price hikes for their current releases. Case in point, their 20^th Anniversary Edition Series.

Why I Didn’t Purchase the 18-Year-Old 20^th Anniversary Edition

Within the 20th Anniversary Edition celebration series there are two releases suitable for the strictly kosher consumer. Namely the 2010 Vintage 14-Year-Old bottled at 51.2% abv, and the 2006 Vintage 18-Year-Old bottled at the respectable 46% abv, both expressions bottled from a vatting of five Ex-Bourbon Barrels, so I suppose you could call this a “Small Batch”.

The 14-Year-Old was priced as if it was a Single Cask Edition, that is around £130. I know Kilchoman is special but that’s still a pretty steep price for a 14-Year-Old. I decided to give it a miss. However, I really didn’t want to miss out on the 18-Year-Old. I cannot tell you how excited I was when I heard that Kilchoman had released this.

Two of my all-time favourite Single Malts have all been heavily peated Ex-Bourbon Barrel matured 18-Year-Olds from Islay, namely the Caol Ila 18 and Laphroaig 18. A third bottle, which I simply cannot fail to mention, is the gorgeous Port Askaig 17-Year-Old (whose liquid is also sourced from Caol Ila Distillery), which was absolutely outstanding. The Caol Ila 18 was sadly discontinued a couple of years ago whereas the Laphroaig 18, which had been discontinued for many years, is now in 2025, back on the shelves. To me, those yellow fruity flavours from those Bourbon barrels combined with that heavy Islay peatiness, reaches the peak of perfection at around 17-18 years.

So, the thought of an integrity bottling 18-Year-Old from one of my favourite Islay distilleries sent my heart racing. I ran on over to my favourite online whisky store and was already withdrawing my wallet from my trouser pocket to type in my Credit Card number, when commercial reality hit me. I sat there staring in disbelief at the UK Price of £220!

As mentioned above, it is not even a Single Cask Edition nor is it bottled at Cask Strength. There was absolutely no-way I could justify paying that amount of money on a bottle of whisky that I intended to open and drink, no matter how good it was.

Just to compare, I recently bought another bottle of the excellent heavily peated Caperdonich 18-Year-Old Limited Edition, bottled at 48%. This is from a closed distillery. There will be no more after the last bottles are sold and a friend coming back home via Bangkok, Thailand purchased this in Travel Retail for $88. (NIS 300, £65).

This means that I could get three bottles of Caperdonich 18 for less than a single bottle of Kilchoman 18.

Quite justifiably in my opinion, Kilchoman have been heavily criticised by many whisky reviewers for what seems like exploitation of their loyal fan base with these massive price-tags. Nonetheless, looking on the major online whisky stores, I noticed that these 20th Anniversary bottles had all been sold out within a few weeks! I wonder however, just how many of them actually got opened and drunk though?

Interestingly, you can see the 18-Year-Old bottle today popping up quite often on whisky auction sites, going for only slightly above its RRP so, when you take into consideration the Auction fees, it would seem to me that there must be some rather unhappy whisky investors and speculators out there. That’s what happens when (in my opinion), you try to target investors with inflated prices rather than provide great whisky to your fans at a fair price for them to drink and enjoy.

LaBriyut! (Good Health to them), that’s what I say!

Kilchoman 13-Year-Old Calvados Casks Limited Edition

Why I bought two bottles of this 13-Year-Old

For the strictly kosher Scotch Whisky consumer, we usually have the choice of Ex-Bourbon or Virgin Oak casks. If we are lucky then we might find a Whisky aged or finished in a Rum Cask. However, a Scotch Single Malt Whisky fully matured, partially matured or finished in a Calvados Cask, is something still relatively rare and unusual, and that’s what piqued my interest with this Kilchoman. Added to that, at “only” £85, it seemed like this was a Kilchoman worth buying.

 

Packaging And Artwork

I have already spoken about the package and artwork design for the Kilchoman in previous Kilchoman reviews, which hasn’t changed much since their first edition back in 2009. They still have the same dumpy bottles with the bronze coin in the centre. The stopper is made of real cork with a solid wood top.

Where’s all the whisky details?

When it comes to information on cask types used, my experience of Kilchoman has always been that all the relevant data that we whisky enthusiasts look for is printed on the bottle. Be it a Single Cask, a batch of casks of the same type or a marriage of different type casks, the details have always been prominently displayed on the front label along with an Age Statement and/or Vintage distillation/bottling dates. Not with this edition though for some reason!

Although there are tasting notes printed on the back label, there is no mention whatsoever of the casks used anywhere on the bottle or the front of the box for that matter. Instead, we find the cask maturation makeup in the last paragraph of the text at the back of the box! Incidentally, anyone who is in the habit of throwing away the packaging will be throwing away this in my opinion, rather vital piece of information.

Tasting Notes

Appearance

It’s either a dark amber or bright gold colour. I can’t decide. In any case, it’s a lovely colour. There are signs of thick barley oils with globules of whisky sticking to the insides of the glass.

Nosing

At 50% abv, you’d expect at least a bit of nose prickle, especially after having just opened the bottle, but to my pleasant surprise, I did not detect any. It became clear that this was a well behaved and cultured dram, even from the initial neck pour.

Whenever I nose a new Kilchoman, I instinctively look for that classic Kilchoman coastal earthy peatiness. Sure enough, it’s there in the Kilchoman 13 but unlike the 100% Islay Editions, this doesn’t push forward and loudly announce itself but, instead, now having celebrated its Bar Mitzvah, at 13 years it shows that it has learnt to be a team player and that peatiness has now integrated nicely with the creamy barley cereals and basket of yellow fruit notes.

After adding a few drops of water and waiting a few minutes, the nose, particularly with regards to the yellow fruits, now comes more into focus. You have ripe yellow apples with roasted cinnamon sugar pastries, moist apple strudel with grilled BBQ pineapple and a touch of citrus pink grapefruit. Ever present is a lovely salty horse-chestnut and ash, reminiscent of roasting nuts in a cottage fireplace by the sea. There is a delicate aroma of flowers growing by the coast in the background and slight burnt sugared porridge with golden syrup and boiled milk.

 

Further nosing reveals sweet barley field smells, peaty and earthy. In summary, a beautiful collection of really nice complex aromas.

On the Palate

The mouth feel is medium bodied and has a creamy porridge texture.

There’s candied citrus peel, pink grapefruit and other citrus fruits. Slightly sour tropical yellow fruits, moist apple cake with a sprinkling of boiled brown sugar. Sweet BBQ Chicken in chilli sauce with grilled apples and more grilled pink grapefruit. (Citrus-y, sweet with a touch of bitterness).

The Finish

Stewed cooking-apples, sultanas, brown sugar and honey, with a hint of sour tropical fruits inside a slightly burnt pie crust. Soft ashy oak notes, sweet roasted horse-chestnuts, mild spices and sugared walnuts at the end.

 

Conclusions

This Kilchoman has real character, displaying unusual yet appealing flavours. I was relieved that unlike the Deanston; there are no unpleasant apple vinegar off-notes here.  Yes, there is a slight bitter almond element to it but, rather than being an off-note, it combines with those sweet flavours to produce a very balanced tasting experience. This is without doubt a well-crafted whisky.

I commend Kilchoman for experimenting with these type casks and think that their method of marrying Ex-Bourbon and Octaves with a small amount of Calvados casks together, rather than using a Calvados cask as a Finish (as Deanston has done), is a much better idea. It seems that, on its own, Calvados casks can produce too much sour and bitter notes which doesn’t integrate well with distilled malted barley. You need another “sweeter” cask to balance it out.

I wouldn’t recommend this to everyone, but if you like your smoky sweet-n-sour BBQs then this might be just the whisky you are looking for. Indeed, to that end, I tried pairing this Kilchoman 13 with some Roasted chicken in sweet Chili BBQ sauce and was very pleased with the result.

I am enjoying my time with this most unusual dram. However, comparing Calvados with that other kosher compatible exotic cask type, the Mexican Tequila Cask, there is no doubt that Tequila wins, hands down. (See my review of the Glasgow 1770 Tequila Cask).

Bottom line: Am I eager to try another Calvados Cask Single Malt? At the right price, yes, but I’m actually much more excited to try another Tequila Cask aged whisky whenever I come across one.