Excerpt: There’s so much going on and it’s so alluring – I don’t want to stop drinking it. Give this whisky more age and depth and it’s going to an absolute stunner. Can you imagine a 10-year-old Machir Bay? 15? 20? I’m looking forward to the day, but for now I’m all about this Kilchoman Machir Bay 2017.
Excerpt: The palate is sweet, sour, and smoky, with a chalky edge and a peppery palate, but water releases blossom and a little gunsmoke: a duel in the dunes?
Excerpt: It’s still very light, driven more by the smoldering embers on the finish than the fruit that you get up front, but as a Scotch story and a work in progress (older spirits will continue to be added to the vatting as this evolves), it’s one that’s certainly getting there. Could use more Sherry on the finishing.
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House Review
Intro:
Kilchoman Machir bay is named after one of Islays beaches near Kilchoman. This is a special vatting for a local retailer that is comprised of a blend of 85% ex-Buffalo Trace bourbon barrel spirit and 15% Oloroso cask matured spirit. It is bottled at 46% ABV with no filtering or coloring. The vattings are done in 30 barrel batches, and use barley peated to the supplier standard of 55ppm.
Nose:
Kiwi, honey, lemon and cream. Rich phenols. Wet and musty, wet grass, charcoal, soap stone and ash.
Taste:
Thin mouth feel, some heat. Lots of honey, malty wet grass. burning rubber. Some sulphur and butter cream.
Finish:
Short, ashy and loaded with lemon and vanilla.
Overall:
This is good, but young and very little wine influence. Definitely not bad, and a great starter from Kilchoman, but there is some work to be done. I think most of the flaws here just stem from being young.
Score:
4
By t8ke
Our in house critic rates spirits on a scale of 0-10 (10 best) and is aggregated the same as external sources