This week’s whisky reviews are all of malts that were matured in madeira casks. I rather liked Monday’s Inchmurrin. Today we add some peat to the mix with the 2022 release of Kilchoman’s Madeira Cask. This is quite a bit younger than the 13 yo Inchmurrin, being just over five years of age. This is not one of Kilchoman’s 100% Islay releases and is peated to 50 ppm. There were 17,000 bottles released, which is why they call it a “limited edition”. As it happens, the last Kilchoman I reviewed was also from madeira casks—though in that case it was a finish and not a full-term maturation. Regardless, I quite liked that one. It was two years older than this one (and a single cask) but I thought it punched well above its age. This is a vatting of 46 fresh madeira hogsheads and it’s unlikely that they’d all be of equal quality. Let’s see if the averaging worked out well and if I like it as much as the previous.

Kilchoman Madeira Cask, 2022 (50%; madeira hogsheads; from a bottle split)

Nose: Big phenolic, vegetal peat off the top. Sweeter notes (caramel, pipe tobacco) emerge on the second sniff along with some coastal notes (shells, a touch of brine). Gets a little raisiny as it sits and there’s quite a bit of roasted malt and milky cocoa as well. With water the smoke gets ashier and it gets thinner all around.

Palate: Comes in with a mix of sweet and smoky notes: are smoked plums a thing? Good drinking strength and texture. Sweeter on subsequent sips and some vanilla emerges as well. The smoke picks up some char as it goes. Less phenolic with time and water.

Finish: Long. The smoke is never-ending and the sweeter notes continue alongside. Develops as on the palate with time and water.

Comments: Do you want a sweet and smoky, heavily phenolic whisky? If so, this is for you. I liked it fine but it only had those two big notes. Well, it’s not reasonable to expect more of a 5 yo whisky. What is certain is that between the heavy peat and the sweet madeira, most other signs of youth have been completely covered up. On the whole, I liked it better on the nose than on the palate, where it was just a bit too sweet, and I liked it better neat.

Rating: 84 points.