Let's take another journey to Campbeltown. So far the only dram I've reviewed from the lesser known Scotch Whisky Region was Springbank 10. The primary reason for this is a lack of options. Once termed the 'whisky capital of the world' Campbeltown in its heyday had as many as 30 distilleries. Today the remote coastal town, on a peninsula along Scotland's west coast, has a population of fewer than 5000 people, making its gaudy distilling history all the more absurd. Only three distilleries are currently in operation: Springbank, Glen Scotia and Glengyle, the last of whom makes Kilkerran single malts. I like to think of Campbeltown whisky as 'halfway to Islay,' due to the combination of its proximity to the island and because Campbeltown whiskies, in my experience, are peaty and complex but not overwhelmingly smoky.
Glengyle distillery is both old and new. The original distillery was founded in 1872 by William Mitchell, son of Archibald Mitchell, founder of the nearby Springbank distillery (in 1828). William and his brother, who jointly farmed and operated Springbank for a time, apparently had a falling out. The result was William leaving the family business to create his own, a new distillery. Decades later Prohibition in the United States almost destroyed the Scotch whisky industry and 'Mitchells Glengyle distillery' fared badly. After a couple sales in 1919 and 1924, production stopped and all aging stock was sold off in 1925. It appeared to be the end.
Interestingly, the buildings remained in use and relatively good condition. This is a major difference I've noticed between places like Scotland and the United States. Sturdy old buildings might see a variety of uses over there. Here we like to bulldoze and rebuild with impunity. In the 1920s the site was used as a miniature rifle club, whatever that means. Later it housed commercial storage and office space. As such the buildings didn't fall into complete disrepair and that made the old distillery desirable. Some attempts were made to reopen it in the 20th century but none succeeded. Finally in 2000 a new company purchased the old buildings, called Mitchell's Glengyle Limited. It's back in the family under Mr. Hedley Wright, William Mitchell's great-great nephew. It took a few years after that, of cleaning and restoring the buildings and bringing in new production equipment, but in March 2004 (almost 80 years later!) the Glengyle distillery started operating again.
The single malts they produce now are branded as Kilkerran. It's somewhat but not overly unusual when the name of a single malt Scotch isn't the same as the distillery. A couple have already been covered here, Octomore and Ledaig. Kilkerran is another. Unlike the two mentioned previously, Kilkerran is the primary brand for its distillery and not a special release. The reason for the changed name was to avoid confusion with a well-known (and trademarked) Highland blended Scotch. Fwiw, per the distillery's website, 'Kilkerran' is derived from the Gaelic name for the original settlement on Campbeltown, 'Ceann Loch Cille Chiarain.'
I find it really cool that Glengyle is committed to doing as much as possible locally. They don't always secure barley from nearby but the rest is all performed in town. It's quite clear how closely they work with Springbank, where traditional floor malting, maturation and bottling for Glengyle all take place. This shouldn't be surprising considering the historical connection between the distilleries but it's still a lot. Regardless, after the barley arrives everything else is done right there in Campbeltown. And I appreciate that.
Good, well-aged whiskey (or in this case, whisky) also takes time. Kilkerran single malts haven't even been available for long, with the first bottling released in 2009. They did a number deemed 'Works in Progress' in those early years which are interesting but you likely won't find any of them. By now they've developed a core range, including an 8 year cask strength, a 12 year and an extremely new 16 year. Their site also shows a Heavily Peated expression that isn't listed as part of the core range or as a developmental Work in Progress so I'm not sure where it falls. What we'll examine today is the 8 year cask strength. From what I can tell it's their baseline product and is all done in very small batches with different ABVs each time it's released.
As an aside, I think this was another purchase from the Jack Rose whiskey shop in DC. My wife picked some fun ones from there and hopefully this is no exception.
Stats:
ABV - 56.5% (113 proof)
Mash - 100% malted barley
Maturation - 'Matured in Oak,' assuming ex-Bourbon casks based on color
Age - 8 years, at least
Region - Campbeltown
Price - $80-90 (a guess, isn't available where I normally price stuff)
Tasting Notes:
Smell - malt ('scotchy'), booze, fruit (peach or apricot?), is that peat?
Color - light, yellowish
Taste - sweet and creamy, bit of smoke, hint of saltiness
Finish - kinda harsh, some backend spice
Final Thoughts:
Before I get into this any more, I want to note I learned this was a 2018 release after Googling the ABV. That's good to know.
As for what I thought overall, it's a little disappointing unfortunately. There's some decent complexity of flavors there but everything (except the booze) is faint. At this age I think the whisky is proofed up simply to help get it there but it's still lacking in some respects.
I'll also say that Kilkerran already seems to have some hardcore fans based on the reviews I'm seeing and the consensus is their whisky is improving year on year, which is encouraging. Maybe in a few years I'll pick up a newer 8 year CS or, more likely, try the 12 year instead. The stuff from Campbeltown is just too interesting to pass up.
Cheers!
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