Kilkerran 16yo 2023
Official Bottling August 2023 | 46% ABV
Score: 9/10
Exceptional
TL;DR
Probably the best Kilkerran I’ve tasted
I’ve gone full circle with Kilkerran and Springbank.
At the start of lockdown I was ramping up my interest in whisky, and Springbank and Glengyle were where it was at for me. I was getting as much as I could within an affordable price. Springbank 10, 12 year old cask strength and the 15 were all on my shelf, as was Kilkerran 12, 8 year old cask strength and the non-age stated heavily peated. None of it was too difficult to get hold of at that stage.
Later in 2020 the first ever 16 year old release of Kilkerran hit the shelves and I managed to snag a bottle. It was getting tougher, and I remember there being a little bit of an effort to get one. I really enjoyed the whisky, but if truth be told, I marginally preferred the 12 and I haven’t purchased another 16 since, until now.
Moving into 2021 and both Springbank and Kilkerran became harder and harder to get, to the point where they pretty much disappeared from my shelves. If truth be told, I was in a bit of a huff that they had been taken away from me, and I decided to ease back and take my foot off the pedal. There was plenty more whisky to be had, but it’s a bit like when you split up with your girlfriend as a teenager and your mum tells you there are plenty more fish in the sea. It’s not wrong, but you still long for what you have lost. I moved on, but I would be lying to say I wasn’t missing it.
It took a little while to realise that a healthier attitude would be not to simply disengage, but to pick bottles up if I could, and not stress if I missed out. Why dismiss something completely when you like it so much?
There are definite signs that things are cooling. There are still certain bottles you can’t get without a fight, a friendly retailer, or a ballot, but the basics such as Springbank and Hazelburn 10, Kilkerran 12 and even this 16 are sticking for a little longer. At least long enough to get one into the shopping cart and through check out without having to be too panicked.
I mentioned previously when reviewing the cask strength 8 year old bourbon cask release of Kilkerran, the cooling of the market took me by surprise and I was able to pick up bottles at retail from auction. I can be pretty confident you’ll be able to get this at auction for around retail if you have missed out.
I noticed this 16 year old’s availability had been highlighted on social media, but I also noticed the post was a couple of hours old. I clicked expecting to see a Sold Out in place of the Add to Basket button, but to my surprise it was still in stock. £70 seemed a fair price and it was a done deal. Looking back I can see it was £60 back in 2020 and 2021, before going up to £65 in 2022 and now we find ourselves at £70. That £10 price rise over three years is fair enough in my view, especially in a world of rising costs for absolutely everything. They aren’t giving it away, but the price isn’t crazy either.
This is one of the beauties of J&A Mitchell, and another reason you can’t be angry at them, despite the lack of availability at times. Prices have risen slightly over the past few years, but they could ramp up prices further to take advantage of their lofty position in the minds of drinkers, collectors and flippers. It sells out easily and would continue to sell out if they raised prices beyond what I am willing to pay. It’s a position many other brands do take in order to maximise profits for their shareholders, but that’s not the case here.
It must be slightly galling to see bottles going straight from their shop and into waiting auction vans around the corner, but they also remember a time when things were tough and nobody was buying their whisky, and now people are buying, they aren’t taking it for granted by ramping up the prices and losing us drinkers as customers. If the bottom falls out of the whisky market and other distilleries are struggling to sell their bottles, you can be fairly sure they won’t be suffering to the same extent. Looking after your customers long term is important. Unfortunately that long term thinking isn’t a position adopted by all of the industry.
As the whisky boom continues for now, there has always been a slight worry that J&A Mitchell could be bought out by such a company with a bigger focus on profit above all else. A company that would milk the cash cow for all its worth. They must have had some large offers over the years.
The recent sad passing of Hedley Wright, who was the fifth generation of the Mitchell family to own and run the Springbank distillery, and of course bring Glengyle back into existence, would have made many apprehensive that this could be the case. Mr Wright has been instrumental in getting Springbank into the position it is in today, and was adamant that things would be done their way, and that way was using traditional methods, rather than the most efficient and perhaps profitable modern practices. He was also instrumental in ensuring the future of Campbeltown as a whisky region, with the introduction of the third distillery, and helping to keep Glen Scotia distilling during the tough times, with staff from Springbank working there during their off season.
Thankfully, it has been confirmed that nothing is going to change, and measures had already been put in place to make sure that was the case. The majority of the company shares are held by a trust designed to protect their independence, and for profits to be used for projects in the local community. Long may that continue.
In 2023, Campbeltown is in the midst of a revival, with Dal Riata, Machrihanish and the recently announced approval of Witchburn securing the future of the region for years to come, and they all have Hedley Wright and his team to thank for the region being as popular in the whisky landscape as it is today, and giving Campbeltown the appeal it has worldwide.
Review
Kilkerran 16 Years Old 2023 (01/05/23) , 46% ABV
£70, some availability
Homogenisation isn’t a word that can be bandied about when talking about either Springbank or Kilkerran, and variation from batch to batch is embraced. The previous three releases of their 16 year old have used a bigger proportion of ex-bourbon casks. In 2020 it was a lofty 96% ex-bourbon and 4% ex-marsala. In 2021 and 2022 they used a similar split to their 12 year old, with 75% ex-bourbon and 25% ex-sherry in 2021 and 70% ex-bourbon and 30% ex-sherry in 2022. Both the 2021 and 2022 have been reviewed by Dramface.
This time around ex-sherry casks make up the lion's share, with a drop of rum added to the mix also. To be exact it’s 65% ex-sherry, 30% ex-bourbon and 5% ex-rum. We don’t get more specifics about the type of sherry casks used, I’d imagine oloroso, but maybe there is some PX in there too. Answers on a postcard.
What I would suggest just looking at the colour of this year's release, it appears they have used mostly refill ex-sherry casks, which reassures me that the Kilkerran spirit will not be lost by a domineering sherry influence.
Score: 9/10
Exceptional
TL;DR
Probably the best Kilkerran I have tasted
Nose
The first thing I notice is it is quite brown and leafy, but there’s also a fresher grassiness in amongst it, with the classic mineralic dry pebble note in many Kilkerran’s is showing itself also. There’s rich honey, caramel, and fruit notes mostly from lemon, but there is also tropical pineapple and a touch of mango coming through. There’s a meatiness to it too, and it’s salty ham, with a light sooty smoke and a pocket full of warm old copper coins. This noses beautifully and the sherry isn’t outshining the spirit at all. I’m not sure many would guess blind this was anywhere near 65% sherry maturation. I wouldn’t.
Palate
All those wonderful earthy, mineralic and coastal elements are present, along with mechanical oils, oily rags and sooty smoke. The honey and caramel sweetness is there again, as is the fruit, but it is lemon and raspberry sourness this time, with ginger and white pepper providing a gentle heat and light fizz, and the sooty smoke and charred oak notes providing a bitterness. It all sits really well together. As it finishes, gentle smoke remains, with the brown leafy notes from the nose coming in, along with hazelnut and cream.
The Dregs
I was intrigued to find out how the switch to predominately sherry casks would work out, and I have to say they have smashed it out of the park with this year’s 16 year old.
It’s hard to express in tasting notes just how well all those individual notes work together and just how well balanced a whisky this is, but it is exceptional. Nosing and tasting it alongside the 8 year old cask strength bourbon cask, you start to notice the sherry influence more than when sampling it in isolation, which I guess makes sense. The caramel in particular starts to pop on both the nose and palate.
I am often asked when I review a sherry cask whisky if there is any sulphur, and it is a worthwhile question when it comes to Kilkerran, as anybody who tried the 8 year old cask strength from 2021 will know, it can be a thing with their sherry cask releases. In this case there is absolutely no sulphur whatsoever that I can pick up.
I don’t think I will be leaving it another three years to buy another 16 year old, and if the auction market continues to stagnate then I will be on the lookout for another one of these for a similar price. There promises to be a 20 year old added to the core range in 2024 according to Glengyle. Where they price that at is anybody’s guess, but I’d be surprised if they went too high.
I’ve gone high with the score, maybe too high in some people’s eyes, but I don’t mind that. If you are going to use the whole scoring band you shouldn’t be afraid to put a big one out there and this is well deserving of it in my view. I considered my score over and over and what swung it for me was a glance of all the bottles on my whisky shelf, and trying to find one that was better, and I was struggling. All the Kilkerran’s I have tried before this popped into my mind too. It’s hard to remember a better £70 I have spent on a bottle of whisky. We’ve only had a few 9/10’s scattered about on Dramface, but they are rare. If my use of the search engine has been successful, there have been a couple of Ardnamurchan’s, a couple of old Glen Keith’s, and an 18 year old Bowmore. The other four have been shared two a piece by Springbank and Kilkerran.
Let’s make that three for Kilkerran, and raise this glass to you with heartfelt thanks, Mr Wright.
Score: 9/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. RT
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