Kilchoman Sanaig Cask Strength

Kilchoman Distillery is a small, independent farm distillery located on the Isle of Islay, Scotland, founded in 2005. Renowned for its heavily peated single malt Scotch whiskies, Kilchoman is one of the few distilleries in Scotland to control the entire production process on site—from barley growing and malting to distilling and maturation—producing whiskies that reflect Islay’s bold, smoky character and strong sense of place.

Sanaig and Machir Bay are Kilchoman’s two core products, but only the latter has had the honour of an occasional cask strength release. Prospective samples of Sanaig were floated during a 2021 Feis Isle virtual tasting. No release date was ever suggested and the label had to wait until November 2024 to finally get its own natural-strength iteration. Looking at the colour, you might think they've mistakenly filled the bottle with Loch Gorm. That's down to a high proportion of x-Oloroso sherry casks (the remaining 30% are x-Bourbon). Essentially, this release uses the same recipe as the regular Sanaig, however, we can assume casks have been cherry-picked, then bottled uncut as opposed to the regular release strength of 46% ABV. Impressive from the get go, through that’s fairly standard praise for Kilchoman, the bouquet kicks off with menthol rub, iodine, damp earth and wood smoke with bitter peel and dark chocolate in tow. Creamy on entry, then catapults into a full-throttle mid palate attack, keynotes being cocoa, Oloroso sherry and sweet peat. Bracing spices and alcohol give this a drying, bittersweet finale, trailing off with pepper, elastoplast and nutty chocolate. Feels like there's more sherry influence than your standard Sanaig. Either way, it's an absolute blast for Islay fans. No outturn is stated, but the Australian allocations are likely in the hundreds rather than the thousands. 57.8% Alc./Vol. Non chill filtered.