Kampen Destillateurs is a small Dutch distillery in the province of Zeeland. They, like Zuidam mainly produce other drinks. In this case that’s mostly liqueurs, vodka and a grappa like product.

A couple of years ago (information is sketchy) they released their whisky spirit called Eilandt Legend (Island legend) for their investors. It was available at the Whisky by the Sea festival in Vlissingen but since then it has gotten very quiet. According to some people who know things about whisky it was very promising.

I managed to get my hands on a sample, I think it was courtesy of Elise of DH17, but I’m not sure. It’s been years and I had completely forgotten about it. When I came across it in a recent night of ‘I grab some sample and taste those’, I decided to give it a go.

Sniff:
Well, it’s a spirit for sure. It’s very rough and fiery, even at 40%. No refinement at all to be found here, even compared to other new makes from Scotland for example. There’s some smoke and salt, with alcohol and sulfur. Some barley, porridge and mash notes follow, being a tad sour.

Sip:
The palate is again, very mash like. Like a sour beer gone bad. Too much of those notes! Alcohol, barley, porridge. But also sulfur like vegetable flavors. It’s not sharp and quite a bit better than the nose made me expect (or dread). Still not good though.

Swallow:
Oh hell no!

This is a bit of a strange one. If I would regard this as an actual product, it would score in the vicinity of Abhainn Dearg, which is not a good thing. But, when you imagine the roughness being mellowed out, and nice soft oak influences added to the mix I can imagine this going somewhere.

But, since we’re not reviewing possible future products but what we actually tasted we have to go with that. And then the short story of it is “No. Just no. Hell no.”.

There is a lot wrong with this and the roughness is not the main issue. The scents and flavors are just not nice. The sulfur is far over the top and the soury mash and porridge notes are just appalling.

I’m glad I’ve been able to taste this, but, as you might imagine, I’m not convinced of this being a success.

Eylandt Legend, white spirit, 40%, Kampen Distillateurs