Kilchoman New Spirit – Casks 446-447/2007(?)

Cask Nos.: 446-447/2007 [?]

Cask type: 1st Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrel [?]

Date Filled: 20.12.2007 [?]

Date Bottled: 7.2.2008

Age: 1 month

Strength: 63,5 % abv

Phenol level: 50 ppm [?]

Bottle volume: 0,7 l

Number of bottles: 120

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Before Kilchoman could celebrate the release of the distillery’s first whisky on 9.9.2009, a dozen single cask bottlings with Kilchoman distillate were released in 2008 and 2009, which – because they were under 3 years old – were not yet allowed to bear the title “whisky”. In addition, in the early years of the distillery, a whole series of un-matured New Make appeared in miniature bottles.

The bottling mentioned here has a whole series of peculiarities and open questions. According to the label, bottled in February 2008, it was the first of the New Spirit bottlings in the large bottle and, with a good month of cask maturation, by far the youngest. Most of the New Spirit bottlings were released between late 2008 and mid 2009 with an age of 2 years.

The label offers an unusual amount of information – even the source of water and peat are mentioned – but leaves even more questions unanswered. This already starts with the cask numbers. As one can look up in the Kilchomania database, casks 446 and 447/2007 were two Oloroso Sherry Butts released by Kilchoman as single cask bottlings in 2012 and 2013. Now, it is possible that only the indication “Bourbon Barrel” on the label is wrong, and that approx. 40 litres of New Spirit were taken from each of the two casks in 2008, but the cask filling date is also incorrect, which was 8.11.2007 for both casks. One must therefore assume that the indicated cask numbers are incorrect. Then the label claims that the barley used was grown and malted at the distillery – so it should be a so-called 100% Islay spirit. In this case, the 50 ppm phenols would be wrong and it should be 20 ppm, but the fact that Kilchoman resumed 100% Islay production after the Kiln fire only in March 2008 is more serious. So this information on the label should also be wrong.