Kilkerran 8yo b.2025 (57.7%, OB, Bourbon Casks, B#12, 25/240): nose: wash and a vaguely-vinegary cream, yoghurt turning sour, soured cream. Something dry turns up too, hay bales or compost, after weeks of shedding its moisture. Next are oily tobacco leaves, and that transforms into a mix of orange peels, decaying pineapple slices and smoky engine grease. Pineapple becomes louder, supported by cow dung in a pasture. The second nose reveals a woollen blanket that has not been washed in years. Mouth: crisp, juicy, fruity. Chewing injects acid into it -- lactic acid, but also a fruit-related acidity. It may even be maracuja and carambola, bright and delicious. Tame smoke lurks in the background, cigarette or smouldering ashes in the fireplace, but those fruits dominate easily. The second sip welcomes dried mango slices, dried apricots, and only a dusting of ashes. The fruits seem fresher and juicy again, while the ashes are more abrasive. Finish: a little unpolished, a tad abrasive. It makes the gums slightly numb, puffs a whiff of fruits, then lets cigarette smoke linger for the longest time. Not sure this is appealing to non-smokers. It is sticky, acrid, impregnating. It reminds me of stepping into a cold room in which someone smoked the previous night. Retro-nasal olfaction detects cut pears laid on rocks, with lichen taking hold and cold tobacco ashes dotted around. The second gulp brings about a cleaning product or another, windscreen defroster or all-surface kitchen spray. Dried pineapple gets into the frame too. Love the palate on this one. 7/10 (Thanks for the sample, SOB)
Kilkerran Heavily Peated b.2026 (58.3%, OB Small Batch, Bourbon + Sherry Casks, B#14, 26/56): nose: earthy and gently smoked. Heavily peated? Not really. Let us give it a second to warm up... Yes: warmer, it exudes dark, greasy earth, a pat of modelling wax, grilled pineapple, mud full of cow hoofprints, drying under an autumn sun. Earthier yet in the second nose, it adds charred wood doused in pineapple juice and burnt paper crumbling to blackened tatters. It somehow maintains a certain fruity freshness until the end. Mouth: creamy, velvety, it pushes warm custard, chocolate pudding, and beaten egg whites. Chewing confirms the heavily-peated claim: suddenly, the palate is overcome with dark, greasy earth, thick black smoke and soot. Pineapple milkshake stubbornly walks into the frame, but it is not the star of the show. Toasted (charred) cereals rock up too. The second sip has juicy fruits, smoked and soot-y, dark peat. Drier smoke takes off, over time, burning pine trees. Finish: huge, soot-y and smoky, charred and acrid. Here are pineapples roasted into a pile of black dust, Terminator-2-style, charred cherry-tree wood, soot, stove pipes, a chimney sweep's van, in which he smokes rollies. Adventurous minds may detect bacon charred to black smithereens. The second gulp is close to scorched earth that has somehow kept some moisture, under a veneer of ashes, soot and torched lichens. This has good parts, but it lacks subtlety for my personal taste. The fruity notes are promising; the peat is a distraction, as far as I am concerned. 6/10 (Thanks for the sample, SOB)
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