Whisky Review #3: Kilchoman Loch Gorm 2022 Edition
I just got home from a busy weekend working at the UK Games Expo (post about that coming soon, probably) and I really wanted to relax before I head back to the day job tomorrow, and I decided to reach for a bottle that I don't spend much time with - the Kilchoman Loch Gorm 2022 edition.
Bottled: 2022
Cask Type: Matured in oloroso sherry butts previously used by Bodega Jose y Miguel Martin for a minimum of eight years.
Stated Age: NAS
Strength: 46%
Price Paid: Somewhere around £60 for the bottle
Served: Neat in a Glencairn
Nose: Salt, smokey peat (though not as much as I expected), and something medicinal and sour lurking underneath, almost like burned rubber
Palette: Sweet and spicy, sherry run through with peppercorn and chili flakes. I don't get much of the peat on the palette, which is again surprising.
Finish: On the short end of medium length. This Is where the smoke lives, bursting in as the other flavours all aside. It's ashy like burned paper. There's some vague fruitiness here that I can't identify, just lingering under the smoke.
I love aggressively smokey peat and I picked this up hoping that would be what I got. It isn't quite there - the sherry sweetness mitigates a lot of the impact of the smoke, despite being peated to 50ppm - but that doesn't mean it isn't lovely.
This is aged exclusively in oloroso sherry casks, a combination of 20 fresh and 2 refill butts of varying ages. No age statement here, but the youngest are at least 8 years old and I remember reading (though can't find the source now) that some of them are around 15 years old. I'd expect to detect more of the oak in here, but I'm not getting much of it at all and there's barely any tannin happening.
All in all this is a very surprising dram. It's not the sherry bomb you might expect given the way it's matured, and it's not massively smokey either despite a decent level of peat on paper. Initially I was a little disappointed, but as I spent time with it it really grew on me. It's subtle and surprising and, ultimately, very enjoyable - an easy sipper but with some pleasant complexity if you pay attention to it.
This is the only Kilchoman I've tried and I'm definitely keen to explore their range a little more.
Verdict? Yum.