Let’s keep the month of reviews of younger whiskies going. Following my reviews of the Kilkerran Work in Progress 1 and an Ardbeg 10 from 2013, here is a Springbank 11. This was released around the same time as that Kilkerran and was one of my first forays into purchasing limited release whiskies. I had enjoyed the Springbank 10 and the Springbank 15 (available at a startlingly low price from a store in Minneapolis known for their low mark-ups) a lot and so plonked down my money for this 11 yo. It was not a single cask release—900 bottles total were bottled at cask strength—but the spirit had spent the entire 11 years in the madeira casks. I enjoyed it greatly and purchased more than one bottle over the next year or two (of course, in those days excellent whiskies stayed on the shelves for much longer). Indeed, it was the gateway for me into Springbank’s Wood Expressions series (see also the Claret Wood and the Calvados Wood—to say nothing of all the 12 yo sherry cask releases from the 1996 vintage). Years later, when my friend Patrick S. offered me a bottle, I was only to happy to take him up on it. Now that it’s open, I can finally review an old favourite. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Campbeltown
Kilkerran Work in Progress 1, Take 2
In February I reviewed four older whiskies: a Caperdonich 36, 1972, a Caol Ila 30, 1983, the 2012 release of the Glendronach 21 “Parliament”, and a Laphroaig 21, 1990. March’s first review, on the other hand, was of a 10 yo: the 2013 release of the Ardbeg 10. Accordingly, let’s make this a month of younger whiskies. Up next, is the first release of the Work in Progress series from Kilkerran. I’ve actually reviewed this one before—about three years ago. That review was from a sample from a friend; this is from my own bottle. It was released in 2009 and contained spirit distilled in 2004, making the contents four or five years old. The vattings for these early releases of the Work in Progress series were said to contain both ex-bourbon and ex-sherry spirit, but I’m not sure what the ratios were. I do know I’ve liked most of the Work in Progress releases a lot. I’ve previously also reviewed both the sherry and bourbon cask releases of the fifth release and the bourbon cask releases of the sixth and seventh releases. I have an unopened bottle of the third release on my shelf. I haven’t tried the second or fourth releases since starting the blog. Anyway, let’s get reacquainted with the first release and see what I make of it now. Continue reading
Longrow 11, 2001, Rundlets & Kilderkins
Next up in my restarted “Open Them and Drink Them” campaign is a Longrow released before I’d started this blog. This is an 11 yo distilled in November 2001 and released in January 2013. It was part of Springbank’s Rundlets & Kilderkins line that saw releases from all three of their single malt variants: Springbank, Hazelburn and Longrow. I reviewed the Springbank Rundlets & Kilderkins very early in the blog’s life. As I already made a hilarious joke in that review about the name “Rundlets & Kilderkins”, I’ll spare you this time and inform you—in case you don’t know—that rundlets and kilderkins were two type of old-timey small casks. Where a sherry butt approaches 500 liters in volume and a bourbon hogshead contains 250 liters (200 in a bourbon barrel), a kilderkin holds 80 liters and a rundlet only 60. This means far greater oak contact over the course of the spirit’s stay in the cask. And I believe the Longrow Rundlets & Kilderkins matured entirely in the small casks, just as the Springbank version had. Well, the Springbank Rundlets & Kilderkins was not overwhelmed by the oak contact and I am happy to tell you that the same is true of this whisky. I opened my bottle a few days ago and have been quite enjoying it. Here now are my notes. Continue reading
Longrow 21, 2001 (Cadenhead)
Here to close out the week, month and year in whisky reviews is a single cask of Longrow 21 bottled by Cadenhead. As they are a sister concern, I expect they’ve picked a good one. Well, the week’s other releases from Springbank (whose peated label Longrow is) have also been very good: both this single sherry cask of Hazelburn (Springbank’s unpeated line), and the new’ish blended malt, Campbeltown Loch. Will the oldest of the three be the best? I hope so: it’ll be good to end the year on a good note.
Longrow 21, 2001 (44.1%; Cadenhead; bourbon hogshead; from a bottle split)
Nose: Oh, this glorious Longrow nose! Mineral peat, brine, cracked coriander seed, lemon zest, a slight whiff of machine oil. The salt expands dramatically on the second sniff with the lemon coming up behind. Continues in this vein, picking up some sweetness as it goes. A few drops of water and the salt, peat and lemon are balanced on a knife edge, with just a bit of vanilla below. Continue reading
Hazelburn 13, 2007
A whisky review on a Tuesday for a change: my last restaurant report from the Twin Cities will be posted tomorrow.
As I said yesterday, we will remain in Campbeltown to close out the year in whisky reviews. After three Glen Scotia festival bottlings (here, here and here), this week began with Springbank’s Campbeltown Loch release, a blended malt that incorporates malts made by the three extant distilleries of Campbeltown. Springbank itself contributed malts from all three of its lines for that blend: the eponymous Springbank, the heavily peated and double-distilled Longrow, and the unpeated and triple-distlled Hazelburn. Today I have for you a single cask Hazelburn. This is an oloroso sherry cask that was released in 2020 and was doubtless snapped up immediately and re-flogged on the secondary market, as is the case, seemingly, with almost everything Springbank produces. I suspect the heavy sherry influence (palpable just from the colour in the sample bottle) will cover up what might otherwise distinguish the Hazelburn line from the Springbank line. Let’s see if that’s the case. Continue reading
Campbeltown Loch
I got you a whisky review for Christmas. You’re welcome.
Last week was a week of Glen Scotia festival releases (2023, 2022 and 2021). We’ll stay in Campbeltown to close out the month and year but move to the more prominent company in the region. Cambeltown Loch is put out by Springbank. Once a name slapped on an old-style blended whisky (i.e malt+grain), the reinvented version Campbeltown Loch (as of 2022, I think) is a vatting of Springbank’s own Hazelburn, Longrow and Springbank malts along with Kilkerran from Glengyle, and, yes, malt from Glen Scotia as well. It is matured in a combination of ex-bourbon and sherry casks. I’m guessing that means it’s a vatting of spirit from ex-bourbon and sherry casks; though I suppose the maturation could have happened post-vatting as well—if you know which it was, please write in below. The other remarkable thing about is that it is quite reasonably priced, even in the US. In the UK it goes for £40—or it did: apparently it all sold out very quickly there. In the US it appears to still be available in many markets and, as per Winesearcher, can be found for as little as $54 in the US, which is pretty low compared to what we have to pay here for pretty much everything else from the distillery (though in some states it does go for quite a bit more). Anyway, let’s see what it’s like. Continue reading
Glen Scotia 10, Campbeltown Malts Festival 2021
My week of reviews of Glen Scotia’s recent releases for the Campbeltown Malts Festival comes to an end with this 10 yo bottled for the 2021 iteration of the festival. On Monday I’d reviewed the 11 yo bottled for this year’s festival, and on Wednesday I’d reviewed the 8 yo bottled for last year’s festival. Both were peated whiskies but while the former had received a white port finish, the latter had been finished in PX casks. I thought both were pretty good, though neither got me very excited. The 2021 release did not feature peated spirit (as far as I know) and was finished in red wine casks from Bordeaux. Will this be the rare red wine cask that gets me going? I have to say my recent encounters with red wine-bothered single malts have not been dire. Both the Mortlach in Diageo’s 2023 Special Release I reviewed earlier this month and the single Super Tuscan cask Edradour I reviewed in November were enjoyable enough (if nothing very special). Let’s see where this one falls. Continue reading
Glen Scotia 8, Campbeltown Malts Festival 2022
I have to confess I haven’t really tracked the Campbeltown Malts Festival very much over the years. The festival was launched in 2008 but I didn’t get around to reviewing a festival release until 2021 (when I reviewed the Glen Scotia release for the 2020 festival). You might think that 2008 is pretty recent and while that’s true in the abstract, consider that the Spirit of Speyside festival only launched nine years prior, and there are a whole lot more distilleries in the Speyside than in Campbeltown. Feis Ile, the Islay festival, is a bit older but it’s not like it goes back to the dawn of time either: the first iteration was held in 1986. Still, it’s probably fair to say that of the major regional festivals, the Campbeltown Malts Festival has the lowest profile. And considering that the other distilleries in the region are either Springbank or a member of the Springbank family (Glengyle/Kilkerran), it’s also fair to say that Glen Scotia probably has the lowest profile of the participants. Or maybe I’m wrong and there is a huge frenzy to purchase their festival releases as well, and a crazy secondary market for them. Unlike most of the Islay distilleries, they do put age statements on their festival releases. The aforementioned 2020 release was 14 years old, and this year’s release (which I reviewed on Monday) was 11 years old. Both were peated whiskies and involved finishes: tawny port for the 2020 and white port for the 2023. Today I have a review of their release for the 2022 festival. It was only 8 years old and, though peated, was finished in PX rather than port casks. Let’s see what it was like. Continue reading
Glen Scotia 11, Campbeltown Malts Festival 2023
Is this the year of white port finishes in Scotland or is it just the year in which I’ve noticed them. Or is it the year of white port finishes in special releases? In October I reviewed the 2023 Cairdeas release from Laphroaig which sees a third of the vatting finished in white port casks. The Talisker in Diageo’s 2023 Special Release was also partly finished in white port casks. And here now is Glen Scotia’s release for the 2023 Campbeltown Malts Festival, which was also a white port cask finish (I’ve previously reviewed the 2020 Festival release, which had a tawny port finish). Unlike the Cairdeas, this one bears an age statement: it’s 11 years old (no vintage statement though, I don’t think). I’m guessing the base spirit was matured in a mix of bourbon casks prior to receiving the finish (for how long, I have no idea). As per Whiskybase, there were 24,000 bottles in the release—I assume these weren’t available only at the festival. The base spirit was distilled from lightly peated malt. Well, I quite liked the marriage of white port (and madeira) with Laphroaig’s heavier peat. Let’s see what I make of this one. Oh yes, this week’s whisky reviews will all be of Glen Scotia’s Campbeltown Malts Festival releases. Continue reading
Kilkerran 15, 2004 (for Denmark)
Kilkerran week has gone very well so far. It started on Monday with Batch 6 of the Heavily Peated, which was in line with the high quality of Batch 4 and Batch 5. It continued on Wednesday with one of the 15 yo casks released in 2019 to mark the distillery’s 15th anniversary. That was the bourbon cask released in the UK. Here now is another of those commemorative 15 yo casks. This one was released in the Danish market and has a somewhat unusual composition. The spirit in it spent 10 years in a port pipe before being put into a refill bourbon hogshead for another five. (There were three of these port–>refill bourbon casks, by the way: another one went to Germany and the third to Italy.) Normally, in the case of double-matured malts you see the first maturation in bourbon casks before the spirit hits the cask that held the much heavier spirit. Well, if the results are good I guess it doesn’t really matter in what order the maturation happened. Let’s see if that is indeed the case here. Continue reading
Kilkerran 15, 2004 (for the UK)
This week of reviews of Kilkerran (the name of the whisky distilled at the Glengyle distillery in Campbeltown) began on Monday with Batch 6 of their Heavily Peated series. I rather liked that one (as I had Batch 5 and Batch 4 before it). The releases in the Heavily Peated series are, of course, all NAS. The other Kilkerrans I am reviewing this week both have age statements; And, if not for the 16 yo—which I reviewed earlier this year—at 15 years of age, both would handily be the oldest Kilkerrans I’ve yet reviewed. Both are part of a batch of single casks of various types that were bottled in 2019 to commemorate the distillery’s 15th anniversary. Most of these were bottled for specific markets. (One even came to the US; I shudder to think of how much would have been asked for it, given the premium we have to pay for anything the importer, Pacific Edge, brings in.) This one, a single refill bourbon hogshead was for the UK market. Let’s see what it’s like. Continue reading
Kilkerran Heavily Peated, Batch 6
Let’s start September with a week of Campbeltown whiskies, specifically with three Kilkerrans. First up is Batch 6 of their Heavily Peated series, which is now up to Batch 8. I was unenthused by Batch 1 but then was surprised by how much I liked both Batch 4 and Batch 5, both of which had a lovely mix of smoke and fruit and salt. I’m hoping Batch 6 will continue down that road. It has a different composition than all the earlier release. Batches 1 and 2 had a lot of sherry in the mix, being a vatting of 55% bourbon and 45% sherry casks. Batches 3 and 4 dropped the sherry component to 20% and Batch 5 took it down a notch lower still, being comprised of 85% bourbon cask and 15% sherry cask spirit. With Batch 6 the sherry component ticked up a bit again, but only to 25%. I’m hoping it will be in line with Batch 4 and 5. Alas, all non-core range Kilkerran is now heavily allocated and not easy to find and Batch 6 is in any case long gone. So this review has very low use value. Why change now? Continue reading
Kilkerran Hand-Filled, October 2022
This week’s reviews are of a couple of Kilkerran distillery exclusive hand-filled casks. On Wednesday, I reviewed one that was filled at the distillery (or maybe at Springbank) in late-August 2022. Today I have one that was filled at the distillery (or maybe at Springbank) in late-October 2022. (I’m not sure because I was not the one who filled them.) The late-August hand-fill started out very nicely on the nose but then things went south in a hurry on the palate and finish. I’m hoping this cask will redeem it some. Let’s see how it goes.
Kilkerran Hand-Filled, October 2022 (58.9%; from a bottle split)
Nose: A very nice start with lemon, wet wool and peppery peat off the top and muskier fruit coming up from below (charred pineapple). Sweeter as it goes with some peach in there as well. With more time the lemon turns to lime and there’s some salt as well. Water pulls the passionfruit out here as well and mixes it with some vanilla (just a bit). Continue reading
Kilkerran Hand-Filled, August 2022
It’s a short week of whisky reviews—the month having started on Monday—and so I had to rummage around to see what I had a natural duo/pair of. And in the depths of the sample drawer I found two Kilkerran hand-filled casks. These were both acquired with the other Campbeltown hand-fills I reviewed late last year and earlier this year. I hope you don’t recall that the first of those was a set that was filled at Springbank in August (here, here and here); and the other a set that was filled there in October (here, here and here). Let’s take these Kilkerran hand-fills chronologically as well, and start with the August cask. A reminder: these hand-fill casks are not exactly single casks—as they are topped off from time to time—and don’t have vintage or age statements associated with them. I’m not even sure what cask type or types go into the vattings; and if I recall what I was told correctly, they aren’t even filled from casks per se but from large glass containers. If I’m in error about any of this, I hope someone will correct me in the comments. Continue reading
Springbank 10, July 2022 Release
Springbank, as you know, has become one of the most highly allocated distilleries in the US. It has become all but impossible to find the 12 yo Cask Strength or the 15 and 18 year olds in the wild; and even if you do find them, the prices asked might make the blood drain from your head. And let’s not even talk about the Local Barley or single cask releases. From the regular lineup the 10 yo is the only one that can still be found from time to time without extra effort—at least in Minnesota—and, at roughly $80 before tax, it is almost a reasonably priced whisky in this current extremely stupid market. Relative to age, that is, Relative to quality, I have to say that $80 seems like a very good price compared to many other whiskies that cost more—and, for that matter, many other whiskies that cost less. I loved the March 2021 release that I reviewed a little less than a year ago. And so when I walked into my local Total Wine and saw the July 2022 release sitting on a shelf, I immediately reached for a bottle. Whiskybase tells me that this release was a vatting of 60% ex-bourbon and 40% ex-sherry casks (do the vattings vary across release dates in the same year? I wouldn’t think so). I opened the bottle right away and have been enjoying it over the last week and a half. Here now are some notes. Continue reading
Kilkerran 16
Last week’s reviews were all of bottles filled from the hand-fill casks at the Springbank distillery in October 2022 (Hazelburn, Springbank, Longrow). Let’s stay in Campbeltown at least to start this week. But instead of Springbank, let’s go down the road to Glengyle, which is where Kilkerran is distilled. And instead of whiskies bottled only at the distillery shop, let’s do a general release. The Kilkerran 16 was first released in 2020. There were releases in 2021 and 2022 as well. Apparently, these releases have had different cask compositions, varying further by market. The 2020 US release was 98% ex-bourbon and 2% ex-madeira, for example, whereas the 2020 European release was 96% ex-bourbon and 4% ex-marsala. On the other hand, the 2021 US and European releases were both 75% ex-bourbon and 25% ex-sherry. The 2022 European release upped the sherry to 30%; if there’s been a 2022 US release it’s not on Whiskybase yet, and so I can’t tell you if it follows the 2020 or 2021 approach. Continue reading
Longrow Hand-Filled, October 2022
Here is the third of this week’s trio of reviews of Springbank distillery hand-filled bottles from October 2022. I reviewed the Springbank from the set on Tuesday and the Hazelburn on Monday. I found that Hazelburn—as I had the August 2022 Hazelburn hand-fill—to be quite palpably peaty. In fact, blind, I would have guessed it was a Longrow. I also liked it a lot. Here now is the actual Longrow from the set and I can only hope that it will not turn out to be devoid of peat. I would also say that I expect to like this even more but the Longrow in the August trio was actually the weakest of that set (which is not to say it was bad). Let’s get right to it.
(As with the other Springbank hand-fills, there is no information on age, distillation here or cask type for this Longrow.)
Longrow Hand-Filled, October 2022 (57.6%; from a bottle split)
Nose: Earthy peat with a bit of savoury gunpowder, dried orange peel and dried mushrooms. Maltier and saltier on the second sniff. With more time there’s toffee as well. A few drops of water and the gunpowder recedes a fair bit and there’s more malt now. Continue reading