Kilchoman 13 yo 100% Islay Unpeated Small Batch [for Germany]
A year ago, the German importer of Kilchoman, Hanseatische Weinhandelsgesellschaft Bremen, launched a single cask bottling 12 yo 100% Islay Unpeated Sherry Butt. Despite a hefty price tag and some negative reviews on social media – some whisky lovers clearly felt duped by the quite distinct peaty notes in a whisky aggressively marketed as unpeated – the bottling sold out extremely quickly. There were clearly still plenty of curious whisky enthusiasts who had never tasted one of the rather rare Kilchomans made from unpeated barley.
Encouraged by the sales success, the German importer has now released another ‘unpeated’ Kilchoman bottling. This time, it is a small batch from two sister casks from last year’s release. The whisky, malted from the farm’s own barley and subsequently unpeated, spent 13 years in the two Oloroso sherry butts.
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As we have reported on several occasions, Kilchoman has only worked with unpeated malt from the farm’s own barley very sporadically over the years; a somewhat larger batch (75 casks) was produced in the late summer of 2012 when the kiln needed to peat the malt was out of order. The two casks included in the release mentioned here come from this very batch. Bottlings of unpeated Kilchoman whisky are therefore very rare; the first two appeared in early 2020 and, to date, only a good dozen further bottlings – matured in both Oloroso sherry casks and bourbon barrels – have been released. (An overview can be found here).
However, despite the use of unpeated malt, all bottlings released to date exhibit a slight note of peat smoke. This is because the ‘low wines and feints receiver’ – from which the spirit still is filled – was not laboriously emptied in between distillation runs following the use of peated malt, due to the rather ‘accidental’ use of unpeated malt. This is why Kilchoman usually places the term ‘unpeated’ in quotation marks. In the USA, some of these bottlings were marketed as ‘slightly peated’; in two US releases, the fact that they were produced from unpeated malt was not mentioned at all, so as not to confuse customers with the smoky note in an ‘unpeated’ whisky.
As mentioned, the German Kilchoman importer took the opposite approach last year and clearly highlighted the fact that it was UNPEATED in its advertising. Despite some criticism, the sales success clearly proved the Hanseatic firm right. This year’s bottling mentions, at least in the small print, that the whisky contains “some remnants of Kilchoman’s peated heritage”. This is also urgently necessary, as chance has this time provided the German importer with two casks that exhibit the most pronounced smoky notes of all the “unpeated” Kilchomans released worldwide to date…
As with last year’s Single Cask release, the RRP is a hefty 160 euros.
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“We only filled a handful of casks with unpeated 100% Islay spirit over the past 15 years and it was always going to be fascinating how they developed differently from the usually peated malt. Although faint notes of peated spirit from the previous sprit runs can be found in the whisky, it is overridden on the palate with strong spice, bold fruits and coastal flavours” Anthony Wills, Kilchoman Founder and Master Distiller.
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Cask Nos.: 563 & 565/2012
Cask type: Oloroso Sherry Butts
Date Filled: 30.8.2012
Date Bottled: 15.9.2025
Age: 13 yo
Strength: 54,5 % abv
Level of phenols in malted barley: 0 ppm
Number of bottles: 1.315
Bottle volume: 0,7 l
Bottle Code: SBG 15/09/25 25/128
GTIN: 5 060210 709075
Market: Germany
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