Kilkerran 12yo
Official Bottle | 46% ABV
Jack of None, Master of All
There’s something to be said for a whisky that can do a bit of everything.
In the advent of Instagram-savvy brands and posting every consumable and hedonistic experience, products tend to survive on being the most of something.
With whisky, we’re seeking higher ppm level peat monsters or sherry bombs that have to be darker than Batman’s cowl to be coveted. Australian whisky tends to be going for that huge tannic cask hit, paired with a colour that would make a ruby gemstone feel anaemic. In Campbeltown’s newest distillery however, the flag that’s being hoisted is blowing in a completely different direction.
The Glengyle Distillery has had its fair share of coverage here on Dramface, but today we’ll be talking about their entry-point to their malts. For the expression that’s probably getting the least hype from the flippers these days, it was hotly anticipated just a few years ago as Glengyle started to come out with age-statements. Unfortunately, I was not in the know and quite a novice in my whisky journey during the much acclaimed ‘Work In Progress’ era, along with their pastel coloured tubes. They reminded me a bit of the Infinity Gems that Thanos collected in the Marvel movies, though you would probably find it easier to get an object of cosmic power than one of those bottles these days.
the previous narrow and tall bottle replaced in 2021
Kilkerran has been a cult-hit, even going past its natural colour, 46% ABV, non-chill filtered presentation, it’s the cousin to the Springbank whisky range. In fact, it’s made by the same people - the folks at Springbank distillery shut up production shop and go over to Glengyle to spend three months making the Kilkerran distillate. I tend to think of Kilkerran as a zestier, lighter Springbank, one with perhaps more fizz?
What Glengyle has done is engineer a bit of a whisky Renaissance-man; it’s a peated whisky, but only lightly so, it has texture and body as well as sufficient malt, a tease of sherry sweetness, and that salty coastal edge Campbeltown whiskies are renowned for. If this whisky were in a tabletop or PC role-playing game, it would have respectable stats around the radar. It does enough in everything to make you notice, but not so much it’s the only thing you’re left tasting after a sip. One might say it’s quite a well-balanced malt, but who needs balance in 2022? This is one I can pick at and savour in a blender’s glass or just throw into a novelty anime tumbler and enjoy it just the same. In fact, it even holds its own as a highball with tonic or ginger ale.
understated , although tubes have now gone
There is also the sought-after Kilkerran 16yo, however I would argue that its enhanced sweetness and subtleties would be lost if it didn’t quite have your full attention, much less mixed in with ice or tonic.
There is much to be acclaimed for something that can have reach and function across everything. In fact, I even had this as my wedding whisky last year. Granted, it was an earlier batch, but I would say more or less the same to the one I’m reviewing today. I calculated choosing it as I wanted something that was peated but wouldn’t make me smell like a burning bog, something that paired well with savoury and sweet, but also a dram I could toast with across the 6-8 speeches on the day. A cask-strength wouldn’t have me make it to my vows. Even looking at the superficial, the Kilkerran packaging is enough to be discerning without being glamorous on the shelf.
Review
2021 Kilkerran 12yo Official Bottling, 46% ABV
£40 / $130AUD at retail, still available with some online retailers. If you’re lucky.
The 2021 edition is bottled at 46% and retails for around $130 – your mileage may vary elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere but the Campbeltown craze has had an even pricier domino effect here Down Under. It’s the entry-level flagship of the Kilkerran core range, with this one being bottled on 25/06/21 with code 21/116. The cask make-up is 70% bourbon and 30% sherry. I believe the bottle from my wedding, as an earlier batch, may have had a different cask recipe.
Nose
Flakes of sea salt with wisps of incense smoke and hot rubber. With time there are vanilla pods and Comte cheese, waves of sweet and savoury coming in at equal fashion.
Palate
Like the top of a biriyani; caramelised onions and toasted cashews with a healthy squeeze of lemon. The peat starts to announce itself as more of an industrial smoke, but then swiftly leaves with crispy malt and coarse pink salt on the tongue.
The Dregs
As much as I always like to have a bottle of this in my cupboard, I know doing so will get harder very soon. Prices have already gone up 50% here among primary retailers since the inaugural release, and hype feeding the secondary market is tending to get worse. It’s a bit sad really as this whisky exemplifies all the fun of whisky, the chugging back, the over-thinking, but most of all, the sharing. So although writing about it is inevitably making the problem worse, I hope people get to enjoy it while it lasts, before it just lines the shelves of investors or collectors like a precious infinity gem.
Score: 7/10 CD
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