Kilchoman 18 yo Private Cask 73/2006 – Làidr Agus Saor Ch

Cask No.: 73/2006

Cask No.: Refill Ex-Bourbon Barrel

Date Filled: 24.5.2006

Date Bottled: 30.9.2024

Age: 18 yo

Strength: 50,0 % abv

Level of phenols in malted barley: 50 ppm

Bottle volume: 0,7 l

Number of bottles: 203

Bottle code: 30/09/24 73/2006

Distribution: Private Cask

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In 2006 and 2007, Kilchoman sold numerous casks to private individuals in order to obtain urgently needed capital for the distillery’s ongoing operations during the economically strained early years. These were almost exclusively 1st fill and 2nd fill bourbon barrels.
Later, they tried to buy back as many of these casks as possible, as the stocks of whisky from the first years had quickly become very scarce. This buy-back programme was only moderately successful, however, and most owners kept their casks and usually had them bottled after the original agreed storage period of 10 years. So there was a great wave of Kilchoman Private Cask bottlings in 2016 and 2017.

This is one of those bottlings. The cask owner(s), who are probably Scottish judging by the name of the bottling (‘làidr agus saor ch’ means ‘strong and free’ or ‘independent and free’ in Gaelic), did not allow their cask to be bottled until it was over 18 years old. Together with cask 101/2006, bottled on the same day, this was one of the first two 18-year-old Kilchoman whiskies in history.

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