Single Malt Whisky, Scotland/Islay

Distilled on December 6, 2006, barely a year after the stills at the young farm-distillery were commissioned, this single malt with 50 ppm phenols takes us back to the early chapters of Kilchoman’s history. On February 12 of that year, the kiln caught fire, forcing the distillery to suspend malting and barley-drying operations for several months. The distillery then sourced malted barley from the Port Ellen Maltings, to Ardbeg specifications (50 ppm), until the end of 2007. Like a cinematic fade-out, this version, which hasn’t aged a bit, evolves delicately from peaty, smoky, medicinal and saline tones to fruity, herbaceous, vanilla and floral notes.

Nose : Fine, complex. At once medicinal, herbaceous, saline and iodized, the aromatic palette is also fruity (pear), vanilla and milky (coconut). On aeration, an elegant peatiness takes possession of the olfactory space, releasing scents of heady flowers (violet, lily of the valley) and aromatic plants (sage).

Appearance : Pale Gold.

Palate : Clean, straight. The peat has become more oily and chocolaty, and at the same time has gorged itself on mineral salts. A lovely lemon and vanilla sequence then adds a pleasant freshness to the palette. This is followed by flavors of ash, soot, green olive and samphire.

Overall : Long, assertive. A delicious invitation to savor an infusion of sage and anise, the finish is remarkably fresh. Increasingly gourmand, it reveals flavors of flan, rice pudding and porridge. Mineral (slate) and herbaceous (cut hay), the retro olfaction makes us contemplate blocks of peat drying on salty meadows.