By now it’s almost six years ago I got these samples from Ben Cops’ ‘Campbeltown Mega Share’, back when that particular bottle-share group was still active. He also used to run a whisky blog but that seems to be on hiatus also.

Anyway, there were a lot of Open Day and Distillery Only samples involved. I reviewed most of them by now, but this one still sat on my shelf. It’s not always I get around to 60+% ABV whiskies.

It’s a bit of a weird one, because it’s a triple distilled Kilkerran. The people at Springbank and Glengyle distilleries usually save the triple distillation for Hazelburn, where Kilkerran (from Glengyle Distillery) usually follows a more Springbank-y regime.

Sniff:
The alcohol is noticeably strong. The spirit itself is light, with quite a good helping of cask influence. Vanilla, alcohol, fresh American oak.

Sip:
Quite a bit of icing sugar, vanilla, puff pastry. Some wood, and otherwise alcohol. It’s a bit more dry than the nose, but that’s the alcohol speaking.

Swallow:
A finish that narrowly follows the palate. Spirit, but quite generic, some oak, lots of vanilla.

The drawback of triple distillation is that it removes more character from the spirit, and is a little bit closer to neutral grain spirit. In this case I feel like that’s the case as well. It’s mostly strong alcohol and strong cask influences like vanilla and wood, with quite a bit of sugary sweetness.

Having said that, the whisky itself is very well made and in a way there’s nothing to complain about. I just prefer Kilkerran products in a different way.

85/100