Kilchoman Original Cask Strength 56.9%
$124.99
COMING SOON - January 18 2017
The second edition of the Kilchoman Original Cask Strength has been matured in Quarter Casks, making it one of the most mature tasting Kilchoman's yet. But at 6 years of age, it was also one of the oldest Kilchoman's ever bottled.
From the Distillery: "95 quarter casks were vatted to produce just over 12,000 bottles of this limited edition at natural cask strength of 56.9%abv. "
Andrew's Tasting Note
Nose: creamy, very honeyed and floral (heather and broom); very maritime, scallops cooked in butter and a dash of honey; medicinal with creamy toasty oak; loads of citrus, mostly lemon with a touch of orange; freshly coopered oak and a touch of cedar.
Palate: creamy, very honeyed, medicinal with big smoke and juicy malt; tones more citrus, lemon, lime and orange; maple syrup, limoncello, vanilla creme brule, detol, massively salted caramel and loads of spice; leather, enormous amounts of fennel and clove; Earl Grey tea infused chocolate and more scallops cooked in butter with a dash of honey.
Finish: long, coating, honeyed and very malty; big salted caramel and loads of vanilla cream; the medicinal-smoky notes linger longest.
Comment: this is Kilchoman at the next level, very mature in brimming with character; its brash Islay DNA is intact but mellowing!
Ardbeg Dark Cove Committee
$179.99
Strictly limited to 1 per customer, open only to Ardbeg Committee Members in Alberta.
This is the Ardbeg Committee edition of the Ardbeg Dark Cove, bottled at 55%. To purchase a bottle you must be a member of the Ardbeg Committee. If you are not all ready a member, you can join here: https://www.ardbeg.com/join .
91pts Whisky Advocate: "This is the bigger, spicier, and more complex of the pair (see below). A prickly start leads to heavy peat smoke, pink and Szechuan peppercorns, vanilla, dark chocolate, angelica, then seaweed. The palate is oily, with a detonation of gunpowdery peat, licorice, smoked eel, and a feral edge that adds grunt. Layered and complex." (Summer 2016) Reviewed by: Dave Broom
88pts Serge Valentin @ Whisky Fun: "Ardbeg ‘Dark cove’ (55%, OB, Committee release, 2016) The label tells us that ‘its heart has been matured in dark sherry casks’. Which doesn’t mean much, really, or only that a part of it was matured (proportions? for how long?) in sherry that probably wasn’t fino or manzanilla. It’s also said, on the label, that it’s the darkest Ardbeg ever. Highly unlikely if you ask me, given the various fantastic dark-oloroso-ed Ardbegs the owners have had in the past. So, the label being partly wrong, doesn’t that make this wee bottle kind of collectable? Despite the fact that it’s yet another NAS? Ach… Colour: gold. Nothing dark, really, we’ve known hundreds of Ardbegs that were darker, both officials and indies."
Nose: hold on, cancel any derision or affectionate mockeries, there’s something clearly ‘old Ardbeg’ to this. Really. This very particular creosote-y thing, these soy-saucy touches, this fattish, tar-like medicinal side that’s so different from Laphroaig’s, this natural rubber diluted in brine, the turpentine, the walnuts (the sherry)… Plus, above all, very little of the dullish new-oakiness that’s polluting so many modern malts. Perhaps a little caraway, ginger, and juniper, but that’s all. So far, so perfect. With water: some kind of salted lapsang souchong into which you would have thrown cloves. Mouth (neat): phew, there was a little ‘obvious’ oak in the beginning of the arrival (varnish plus ginger and caraway), and I may like the nose better, but this is frankly very fine, appropriately thickish, cough-syrupy (oh my), with some acidic lemon as well, some smoked ham, perhaps a wee bit of bresaola to please our Italian friends, some salt, and some bitter oranges. Salty soy sauce with some tar liqueur. With water: it takes water well, becoming even peatier, even if more oils from the wood tend to come out as well. A tannicity. Finish: extremely long, and spicier. More cloves, ginger, cumin… Comments: it’s maybe more the oak than the wine that’s been playing the largest part here. I find this Dark cove more to my liking than last year’s… ach, what was the name again? - but I do prefer Uigeadail in this ‘direction’. But it’s excellent indeed. SGP:468 - 88 points."
Balblair 1997 Cask 921
$189.99
Adelphi Glentauchers 2007
$103.49
Adelphi Hampden Rum 2000
$129.99
Matured in Bourbon and finished in a Refill Sherry Hogshead, this Jamaican rum has been bottled at 54.3% after 15 years.
Adelphi Glen Garioch 1998
$194.99
This 1998 Glen Garioch was bottled by Adelphi in 2016. 152 bottles total - only a few cases made there way to Alberta.
Adelphi Clynelish 1996
$175.49
Adelphi Glen Elgin 1995
$194.99
This independent bottling from Adelphi originally hails from Glen Elgin Distillery in Speyside where it was put into a hogshead in 1995.
It was bottled in 2016 at a cask strength of 51.7% ABV and is 20 years old.
G&M Caol Ila 2005 KWM Cask 302022
$121.49
3/4 Sold!
Distilled 14/03/2005 and filled into cask 302022, the whisky was matured for 11 years before bottling exclusively for KWM at 54.2%. Just 228 bottles from a Refill Bourbon Barrel!
Andrew's Tasting Note
Nose: honeyed with bacon wrapped scallops cooked in butter; firm smoke with strawberry and rhubarb jams; creamy and orangey, big juicy malt with some lovely citrus notes.
Palate: sweet, very honeyed and creamy and then the fragrant smoke drifts in coating the mouth with salt, peat and juicy malt; more strawberry and rhubarb jam but also Moroccan marmalade and quince paste; more seafood tones: bacon wrapped scallops cooked in butter with brown sugar.
Finish: big and long; stays sweet and creamy with clean peat smoke and more bacon wrapped scallops.
Comment: for such a heavily peated malt, I can believe how fresh, sweet and fruity it is; this is top of the mountain on a sunny winter day whisky!"
Producer Tasting Note
Nose: cured meat aromas mingle with vanilla and tropical fruit notes.
Palate: sweet with pear, ripe banana and hints of toasted oak followed by a peat smoke edge.
Finish: long with lingering bonfire embers.
About Caol Ila (Courtesy Gordon & MacPhail):"Caol IIa is a lively whisky, both peaty and full of flavour, without being as intense as its more famous counterparts. Its availability is limited, and with a name that is difficult to pronounce, Caol Ila has remained an almost secret Islay malt. The name, - pronounced 'culleela', is gaelic for 'Sound of Islay'. The distillery is appropriately hidden in a cove near Port Askaig, overlooking the Sound of Islay, across which the ferry chugs to the nearby island of Jura."