Kilkerran 11 Year Old 2014 Single Fresh Bourbon Cask #55 Duty Paid Trade Sample Cage Bottle Campbeltown Single Malt Scotch Whisky (2025) 70cl
As you know, to obtain one of these is difficult due to the random dispensation, low bottle numbers, how long you queue for, it may not come out on the day you go and costs money to get to Springbank in the first place to obtain one so the stars really have to align to find one of the rarest Springbanks out there.
This Kilkerran is very much bourbon influence forward followed by the Campbeltown funk.
TASTING NOTES
Nose: Sweet, fruity, salty, and a bit nippy & aggressive. Aged cheddar cheese, the hard & crumbly sort with the salt crystals forming. Sweetened grapefruit peels, sea salt, and juicy honeyed malted barley. Touch of candle wax & soft peat smoke, thickened vanilla cream, salted lime. Touches of stone fruit around the edges.
Taste: More aged cheddar cheese, creamy vanilla, candle wax, and sea salt. Grapefruit peel, soft peat smoke, olive oil, and slight touches of greasy old rags & mechanic's workshop floor. Those notes do taste better than they sound, believe me!
Finish: Long length. Still a little hot & aggressive unfortunately, but I wouldn't say rough and certainly not unpleasant. Grapefruit peels, candle wax, and soft peat smoke. Slightly floral around the edges. Crunchy malted barley & sea salt to finish.
About Kilkerran
The single malt whisky brand produced at Campbeltown’s Glengyle distillery. Owned by Springbank's parent company, J & A Mitchell and Co Ltd
Kilkerran single malt was born from the rebirth of Glengyle distillery in 2004. The Campbeltown distillery, which had closed in 1925, was reopened after the turn of the century by J&A Mitchell. However, the Glengyle brand name had been previously sold to Bloch Bros, leaving the distillery’s new owners to consider an alternative name for its single malt. Kilkerran – Cille Chiarain in Gaelic – is the original name of Campbeltown.
Lightly peated and non-chill-filtered, the 12-year-old is matured 70% in ex-Bourbon casks and 30% in ex-Sherry casks. The result is a far cry from the traditional heavy malt distilled at Glengyle during the Victorian era.
The annual ‘Work-in-Progress’ releases were matured either in ex-Bourbon or ex-Sherry and were released in quantities of between nine and 18,000 bottles.
Glengyle distillery was founded by William Mitchell in 1872, and it remained in family ownership until 1919. After it was closed by West Highland Malt Distilleries in 1925 the distillery and remaining stocks were acquired by Bloch Bros, which had also bought Glen Scotia.
The distillery was silent for three-quarters of a century, but was purchased by J&A Mitchell in 2000. Four years later Glengyle was reopened, and its first Kilkerran single malt released in 2009 as a 5-year-old ‘Work-in-Progress’ expression. Annual work in progress releases continued thereafter until 2015.
56.7% ABV
70cl
