Review #95 - Kilchoman 100% Islay 11th Edition (2021)
'Local Barley' Series: Part 1 of 5
Islay Barley, Local Barley... you get the general idea. These are single malts that specifically point out the provenance of their barley, disclosing the location it was grown (near the distillery) and often also providing information on the variety of barley used.
Our first entry in the series is from Islay, from Kilchoman - it's the 100% Islay, an annual release using Islay-grown barley varieties. We're looking at the 11th edition of this whisky today, which was released in 2021, an outturn consisting of 12,000 bottles for the world. Limited, surely, but there's definitely a decent amount of this stuff out there. Kilchoman also tells us that the barley varieties used in this batch were Optic and Publican grown on the distillery's farm, and as always with this brand, the release comes with quality specs: >46% ABV (50% in this case), no added color, and no chill filtration.
Kilchoman 100% Islay 11th Edition (2021)
Scotland/Islay - Single Malt
Current Locally Available Price: USD 115 (2023)
Age Statement: NAS
Strength: 50% ABV
Cask Makeup: Ex-bourbon barrels and ex-Oloroso butts
Details: 11th Edition; 12,000 bottle release; not chill filtered, no color added; Optic and Publican barley varieties
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 2 times over 3 months; bottles at 90% and 10% fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a Glencairn glass each time, rested 10-15 minutes
Nose: Starts out with hay and a bit of funk - it's musty, and the peat is quite earthy. There's salt, too, and with time, the brine becomes more medicinal. Fruits creep in: sweet moldy lemons, peach cobbler and other stone fruits, along with some additional sweetness from vanilla. The funky notes are quite strong now: a damp cellar, very musty, charred wood or the wet remains of a campfire. There are whiffs of white mushrooms and oils, too.
Palate: The mouthfeel is medium or so in thickness, and this is rich and powerful, spicy and earthy and peaty, sort of strange. The smoke is sharp, but it's balanced by sweet notes of lime and moldy lemons, some white chocolate and a bit of vanilla sugar. A bit of char or wood smoke and some burnt orange rind creep through, too, and then the earthy, dirty flavors from the nose are back: damp hay, mud, a bit of barbecue as well. Warmth builds in the throat, part peat and part oak... this pulls us in many directions, but it manages to stay somewhat cohesive at the same time.
Finish: The peat becomes milder but it does linger a while, it's a medium length finish. More food notes as this evaporates away: orange chicken, melted butter and oil, sweet limes, a bit of cilantro, too. There's a cozy campfire warmth paired with the smoke, and, as was the case throughout the experience, those musty, damp earth and hay tastes linger.
Final Note: Interesting stuff - is it just the knowledge that this is a sort of 'local barley' whisky that helps the farmyard notes of hay and earth come out in our tastings? Or is there really that much of a difference in the molecular compounds that affect the taste based on the provenance of the barley? Impossible for us to say, but we really enjoyed this Kilchoman. Funk and earth paired with peat is an entertaining combination to explore, and the predominantly ex-bourbon aging allows those underlying spirit characteristics to shine through.
Our Average Rating: 8.0 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating: 6.55
