Official Bottling 2024 Release | 57.8% ABV

What does it take to fall in love?

I’m not only asking because we’re somewhere close to St Valentine’s Day, but because we know looks aren’t everything. This is certainly true when we’re talking about whisky.

Maybe you’ve been around long enough to remember a younger Dougie Crystal as a new asset to the Dramface team and how he was, at that time, still searching and seeking to discover what made him tick? Only to fall deeply, madly, in love with young and bold whiskies and of course Ardnamurchan.

And granted, Ardnamurchan is quite a looker. An aesthetically pleasing distillery located in stunning scenery in a remote and beautiful part of Scotland; what’s not to love? But a pretty face alone doesn’t cut it, not by a long shot. 

True beauty lies inside and in the eye (or when talking whisky - on the tongue) of the beholder. There’s some absolutely beautiful looking and picture-perfect distilleries out there: Aberfeldy, Speyside, Strathisla, Cardhu… yet few of us, for various reasons, tend to rave about them. 

On the other hand there are quite a few ‘ugly ducklings’ that make my heart skip a beat just thinking about them and what they produce. Loch Lomond and Mannochmore, to name but the two of the most obvious examples. So the obvious answer to my question is: it’s the flavour, stupid!

When a distillery stays truthful to its profile and presents it with integrity, it’s probably the shortest way for them to win over fans. Knowing what works and sticking to strengths is a fairly foolproof way of going about business.

And yet, how are we feeling about some experimentation these days? Knowing where strengths lie is without doubt a key factor in developing a loyal fan base; but in this day and age there’s something to be said for those willing to explore and see where they can take things, flavour wise, by experimentation. Either with fermentation times, yeast strains, barley varieties, cut points, peat levels, casks, or combining some or all of the above. 

Amongst those who’ve built a bit of a reputation combining a solid, quality core range while allowing quite some leeway for more experimental releases are Loch Lomond (again) or Benromach, proving both aren’t mutually exclusive.

Traditionally, straying off the beaten path tends to be done by mixing things up in the warehouse and some distilleries, like Glenallachie, indeed take it to another level, finding out how different cask types respond to their whisky. In the best case scenario some things will work brilliantly - while other things will prove to be somewhat less successful, perhaps all the way down to being downright crap. 

The cynical Earie inside puts the whole cask-variety thing down to the fact that ‘traditional’ good-quality sherry casks are now worth their weight in gold; making it an absolute economic necessity to explore other casks. While he’s probably - at least to some degree - absolutely right, I also like the naïve Earie who wants to embrace and celebrate this more adventurous approach which allows us to discover new aspects from a distillery and different wood types. 

Another distillery that has, over the years, released bucketloads of different maturations, finishes and single cask releases is Kilchoman. They too have built their brand around a solid, limited core range of three or four expressions (and have embraced batch variation in doing so). But also release a plethora of limited, sometimes single cask, releases where it seems as if an ‘anything goes’ kind of approach is applied. 

Different wine casks – from pinot noir to sauternes and everything in between, first fill, STR, tequila casks, port pipes, numerous variations of different sherry casks from numerous shapes and sizes, bourbon barrels or a mixture of all of the above; Kilchoman has done it all. Well over a thousand different releases in twenty years if whiskybase is anything to go by. And it’s just as well, because there’s precious little other way of exploring their whisky.

Only the SMWS can put their name and label on more than a handful of indie Kilchoman releases – 13 to be precise. So, when talking about independently bottled Kilchoman, it’s fair to say it’s pretty much non-existent. Which essentially means that Kilchoman themselves have embraced the concept of what a lot of indies tend to do – to provide people with a different approach (and taste) to what we tend to know from a distillery and their official ‘core’ range. 

I don’t think it’s because they feel like cutting out the proverbial middle man. In the case of the Islay farm distillery, historically, it has more to do with there not being an awful lot of their whisky to go about. These days they are capable of producing some 650,000 LPA (the actual production might be closer to 500,000 LPA), but that’s a fairly recent thing as they expanded the distillery in 2019 - more or less doubling their previous capacity.

Review

Kilchoman Sainaig Cask Strength, Official Release, 2024 bottling, 57.8% ABV
€90 (£75) paid, still some availability

A few years ago we saw their core range Machir Bay get a cask strength version, which got a nod of approval here on Dramface. Late last year, they did the same for another core range expression, Kilchoman Sanaig. Time to see what’s what.

As I was gifted a 1920’s blender’s glass for Christmas by my dearly beloved, I decided to put it to good use and take a deep dive into this one, putting it head to head with a Glencairn. On a side note: there’s an interesting article from Dallas here on how different glassware will influence your nosing and tasting experience, dating back to the early days of Dramface.

Nose

Blender’s glass:

Prunes, plums, figs, berries, sultanas, toffee… the works. But: where’s the peat? Digging deeper and further it does show up, in the form of an earthy sensation, although I still get next to nothing when talking about smokiness. What I did find is a soft herbaceous note, which adds a pleasant and somewhat surprising element to things. With a few drops of water a gentle antiseptic note joins in, as well as a soft honey sweetness and orange peel, giving away that at some point this did see the inside of bourbon casks.

Glencairn:

The antiseptic and maritime notes are way more upfront, while all those sweet red (berry) fruits clock in as well, delivering notes of jam and marmalade. There’s toffee, cold brewed coffee and a touch of dark, gently bittersweet honey. After adding water a peaty - earthy sweetness emerges with some strawberry chocolate and toffee.

Palate

Blender’s glass:

Wow. Ash, smoke and peat now very much centre stage, while the fruit and toffee notes get almost pushed to the back . Dark chocolate mixed in with some pepper and rich spices. With water added I’m picking up leather and tobacco notes alongside the return of that dark toffee note, but things also get noticeably ‘hotter’ and more feisty.

Glencairn:

Warming and gently bitter from toffee and dark chocolate. Again quite some leathery – tobacco notes while the peat makes its presence with an earthy, peppery note. With water added, that peppery – peat note gets accentuated further, also making way for oak and (dare I say - finally) smoke - both lingering on into a long, dry, ashy finish.

The Dregs

I wanted this to be great and wonderful and awesome, I really did. 

The regular Sanaig is more than decent, bringing an absolutely flawless and very quaffable combo of peat, bourbon barrels and (Oloroso) sherry casks. This cask strength big sister, however, somehow feels and tastes a bit unbalanced. I can’t help but feel that at times it sort of suggests what it could be but somehow (so far) never actually fully delivers or fulfils that potential. 

I’ve put this head to head with that belter from Elements of Islay I reviewed recently, and the difference almost becomes painful. Similarly priced (the Sanaig is roughly 5 quid more expensive), the blended Islay malt gets my vote every day. Don’t get me wrong: this is good whisky, just not great whisky. I’ll even go as far stating that I feel I prefer the regular 46% ABV version of this one, saving me some €30 (£25) along the way… 

The sort of bottle you like, but somehow never really fall in love with. So, who’ll be my Valentine this year?

Score: 6/10

Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. EA

Other opinions on this:

Whiskybase

Whisky Uncorked (video)

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