ralfy review 1063 - Kilkerran 12yo @46%vol_ (2025)

Hello Malt Mates, I'm Ralphie. Welcome to the Whisky Bothy and welcome to Ralphie Review 1063 in an ongoing series of 15 year long Whisky Reviews. Because when we engage with something of quality in our life and we keep the experience controlled and moderate, well, good things happen. It improves the quality of our life. That's just the, it's the natural order of things. We'll put it that way. And the natural order of things goes like this. We start at the beginning and we experience something which triggers a response from us that we want to experience it more because there is a certain quality about it. And therefore we continue on that journey and as we do we incrementally learn more and more about what we're enjoying, why we're enjoying it, how we're enjoying it, when it's better than we expect, when it's not better, when it's worse than we expect and the reason why. It all adds up and this is certainly goes for whiskey and this is a good example of one of these whiskies where we have the experience and it just, it gives us a lift, it gives us a positive response, an endorsement for our points of reference, our smell, our taste, our general satisfaction with the experience not just of the flavours but of the sensations, the completeness, the calibre of the cask influence, the quality of the professionalism that's gone into producing the product and then delivering it out into the market, non-pretentious, no BS, no excessive, disingenuous marketing because the majority of marketing is disingenuous. I think we know that. We do live after all in far more cynical times and deservedly so. There's a reason for that and nothing restores our faith in mother nature better than a good dram. I'm going to review 12 year old Kilkerran for you. It's a Campbelltown malt. I last reviewed a Kilkerran in review 1042 which isn't that long ago but it's one of their small batch heavily peated series and it represents very good value for money for a most convincing and authentic heavily peated single malt experience. So go look for it malt mates if you haven't already discovered it. But prior to that in my review 907 which was in December 2021 I did review an earlier edition version of Kilkerran 12 year old and I rated it very highly. In fact I gave it 90 out of 100. However that was the old marking system so we're not quite going to reach those dizzy highs this time but let me reassure you I will be giving this a very solid and decent malt mark for a simple reason. Not only am I thoroughly enjoying it, not just the quality of the flavour but the calibre of delivery and I'm best value whisky 2024 in the Oswas that's the online scotch whisky awards and you'll find just do a quick search oswa.co.uk or just go into my description box below and you'll get an immediate connection to the Oswa page and the Oswas are a democratic global voter-led assessment of what's the best of whiskies particularly scotch whiskies and Kilkerran Kilkerran is a very deserved winner. It comes from Glengail distillery but for legal reasons the distillery can't name the brand after the distillery itself. The distillery lies immediately next door to Springbank distillery in Campbelltown. Now let me give you advice here keep an eye on the Campbelltown region of scotch whisky because there's very interesting things happening there at the moment. There is in the foreseeable future two possibly three more distilleries opening in Campbelltown or around Campbelltown and in doing so it will basically double the number of distilleries within that region. It's also interesting to note that in the Campbelltown region you have the highest percentage of all the regions in Scotland of integrity delivered whiskies not just from Springbank but also from just across the road at the other side of town from the Glenscotia distillery which for a long long time was completely off people's radar for the simple reason it was wildly neglected by the previous owners. However, under new ownership it is most certainly coming back to life and the quality of spirit they're now making at that distillery is superb so keep an eye in Glenscotia distillery. But let's come back to Glengail distillery and the versions of Kilkerran. I'm going to basically smell and taste this for you give a little bit of commentary I'll give you a malt mark but I also want to kind of fill in with a little bit more perspective as to what's going on here and it's very very important for whisky drinkers in particular who have already started and have a few years of experience under their belt and are taking things further. Let's start with the nose now a gentle roll I don't like all this shaky shaky stuff you know that how's excuse me how's the fire doing hey babe I'm looking for some flames out this fire well I'm getting plenty of smoke anyway we'll get the flames now it's a slow burner tonight that's better oh see when you have a dram with an open fire well a closed fire that's burning biofuel the presence of that living flame really helps the experience if you don't have a fire where you are at least have a couple of candles burning if you have a wee cluster of of candles or even night lights maybe about half a dozen night lights in a wee bundle or a wee pyramid having something about the authenticity of a living flame really subliminally helps in the appreciation of a single malt I'm just talking purely from personal experience over the decades so if you want to check it out it'll be very very easy and cheap to do so see if it actually works back to the nose here it's wonderfully viscous and oily it's a dense nose that doesn't give up much initially but you know there's a lot there then you roll the spirit around the glass you look at the rim right around the glass and you see the what's called the coat line that's the border between the wet part of the glass and the dry part of the glass and this is thick it's holding and then considering the age of the whiskey which is 12 that's official it's valid you're getting legs and drops pear drops running down pear type shaped drops running down the inside of the glass slowly and methodically and there's a real density this shows in the glass like a much older whiskey that's had more time in wood but the reason this is happening is the integrity of delivery and I can't stress this enough many of you are already aware but there's no harm in the occasional reminders this 12 year old Kilkerran is bottled at 46 percent all we have to do is turn the bottle round look at the back label and we can see clearly without the need of a magnifying glass or a or going on a treasure hunt that it's not chill filtered and it's no added colouring the majority of scotch whiskey by the way has added colouring in fairness blended whiskey suits added colouring it homogenizes and contains the experience for more passive consumption but that's not what we're looking for with single malts we're looking for proactive consumption we're looking to be engaged more engaged in the experience in other words we are open to the conversation that the whiskey provides to us and when you see any scotch single malt which is self-evidently a natural colour and doesn't look like it has a fake tan from the chemicals added and yes it's chemical e150a is a chemical don't kid yourself don't listen to the experts don't listen to the brand ambassadors they're there to sell you product I'm here to to share the experience my experience of buying product is a difference big big difference I paid for this I bought this last November at the Good Spirits company in Glasgow and some of you have already noticed that it's the oldest style of bottling so you may see Kilkerran in a shorter dumpier I don't have an example here but a spring bank style of bottling and that's just the more contemporary presentation of the whiskey essentially it's still the same ongoing small batch single malt nothing wrong with the quality it's only the shape of the bottle that's changed this is the old-fashioned one and that's fine by me it's what I could buy in the shop in November 2024 when I bought it back to the nose it's had a bit of time to open up I've coated the inside of the glass so now before I add a drop of water we're getting a little chase off and I'm smelling the whiskey from here it has a delightful honeyed fresh clear slightly floral vegetal note clearly with vanilla and most certainly with an ambient marzipan stroke frangipane note to it in other words almond it's very elegant there's the mildest of gingery tangs and the softest of sultanas the nose is opening up now as I say it's a minute in the glass for each year in the cask and don't you forget it because I'm just telling you simples first taste oh bright fresh gingery sour beautiful lemon and grapefruit sour slight banana note peach notes profound preach peach notes um super clean in the palate it just bright and explodes citrusy totally citrusy you don't get the citrus on the nose you do get the citrus in the palate and then it just carries on wonderful stuff I'm going to add some water now when you get an integrity five milligram five milliliters will do when you get the integrity of the delivery unchill filtered and natural color you will always get more out the experience of whatever is in there 46 percent non-chill filtered makes a good whiskey better and a bad whiskey worse it's just the way it goes excuse me we've got incoming right you bribery bribery could you get your your little catty furry bottom out the way of the camera you're upset you're putting off my viewers I don't want my viewers frightened by your skanky bottom sticking in the camera it's putting them off their dram Billy the cat always the opportunist he's the outdoors one where was I Kilkern 12 year old let's crack on with it I've now added five milliliters of water what I'm already aware of is the richness of the sensations here it's not just the flavor there is beautiful soft complex sour bitter fusion there is the tiniest little bit of saltiness in the background but not much and a delightful soft vanilla based umami or savory grain note and this is just such a it's just such an old school experience I remember tasting independent bottlings of whiskeys from Caden Heads and Signatory back in the 1990s they were kind of like this um and they were just you know those are the ones I remember I don't remember the supermarket bottlings well apart from the Springbank I got it three 23 pounds a bottle from a supermarket called Waitrose in Glasgow they reduced it because it wasn't selling seriously I'm not making this up back in the early 2000s Springbank had a contract with a supermarket to try and sell their whiskey yeah and then the supermarket couldn't sell the whiskey so they discounted it how times have changed and I'll tell you why because people's expectations and palates and awareness and knowledge has changed why? Simple as the internet. Am I wrong? Final thoughts in this dram here a little bit of scotch mist creeping in there not a lot but we'll see more shortly nose fresh zesty slightly herbaceous herbaceous and floral honeysuckle slight lily notes beautifully soft complex grain taste zesty astringent super fruity complex subtle delicious barley sugar sour notes grapefruit soft peach slight banana there's a lot going on there this is a complex signature for any distillery and I am loving it I'll tell you what it's an endorsement for the value of democracy where the online community get off get it you've had your treats now hey careful 85 out of 100 and all credit to the online community voting this bottling in the osways as the best value whiskey for 2024 a very deserved winner pop back again for Ralphie review 1063 extras in which I will be talking about something relating to this but no spoilers you'll have to watch to see bye