Tasting: Glengyle Kilkerran WIP 1 2005-2009

Dram data:
Distillery: Glengyle
Bottler: Official Bottling
Distilled: 2004
Bottled: 2009
Age: 5 years
Limitation: 9000 bottles
Casks: ex-bourbon & ex-sherry
Alcohol: 46%
unchillfiltered; natural colour
Whiskybase link

Tasting notes:
Colour: light gold
The nose opens with a light and delicate note of peat smoke – it is distilled from barley malted to Springbank style specifications after all. A very nice mix of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. Vanilla, honey, a pronounced note of fudge and milk chocolate, also stewed apples and pears, fully ripe cherries, a few raisins, red gooseberries. The alcohol is really subdued, this is quite mature for its age. The palate complements the nose but this is where the age shows with a shift away from the sweetness and fruits towards more pronounced alcohol. Let’s add a wee drop of water and wait a couple of minutes. That opened up nicely! Vanilla, creamy custard, diluted honey sweetness, light and fragrant peat smoke, brine. Stewed apples, oranges, pears, hints of spices – cinnamon and cloves with a complementing mild oak bitterness . The short to medium long finish goes down very well and mellow upon swallowing leaving a mixture of peat smoke, light sweetness, an herbal bitterness and hints of spices.

Verdict:
With the release of the last bottling in the “Work in progress” series from the Glengyle distillery happening very soon I found it only matching to go back to the year 2009 when the first bottling in the series was released as a five-year-old marriage of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. A very nice dram, not only considering the age. It needs a bit of time and a drop of water and you’ll get a classic, no-frills whisky with mixed notes of sweetness, fruits, fragrant and well-integrated peat smoke and already some oak influence. You can still find bottles scattered around in shops.

Score: 85/100
(Nose: 87 Palate: 84 Finish: 83)