Kilkerran 15 Year Old Single Cask, Bourbon Wood

In order to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Glengyle Distillery, the distillery released a series of kilkerran single cask, each aged 15 years and matured (or secondary matured) in one of 5 varieties of casks (Bourbon, Oloroso, Port, Madeira, Fino). Every country would receive its own cask limited to however much the outturn was.

Canada (The distributor in Calgary specifically I suppose) received this 15 yr old bourbon wood versions which bears great similarity to the one released in Scotland, the only difference is the proof point (53.1%) and the outturn (324 bottles) otherwise they both follow the same scheme.

Distilled in May of 2004, matured for 10 years in a fresh bourbon puncheon? and then moved to a refill bourbon Hogshead for 5 years, total outturn 306 bottles at 53.5%

Nose: Sweet round, lovely fruits like melon, green apple, loads of wax almost shoe polish, oak, a bit of coal/ash. It has this lovely mineral backbone, camphor, menthol gel,a slightly rubberry side, then almost ozone like.

Palate: Sweet, ashy, salty, lots of umami, oily fish/coastal, menthol, very mineral, old metal medicine cabinet, a little buttercream frosting.

Finish: citrus rind, a touch of smoke, black earth, waxy, kaffir limes and black cardamom/black pepper.

Blab: lovely, not too harsh, there's great clarity to the the nose, you can pick apart all the layers quite well. The palate is nice and sticky, it borders on almost too earthy but the sweetness and roundness of the bourbon barrel makes it work and elevates the mineral elements.

I am glad to have shared this one on the blind tasting, it's not for everyone but I felt like there was something in this presentation we don't get often in whisky these days. There is sweetness and barrel influence but it doesn't seem to clobber the whisky's character or try and hide it's idiosyncrasies.