Kilkerran 8 Cask Strength 56.9% (2021)

Well this blew up! Talk about a mad scramble! Just getting hold of a bottle without having a connection with a helpful retailer was a mission. The only bottle harder to get hold of from the recent Springbank releases was the Longrow Red, but this Kilkerran was a very close second. If you were not super quick on the F5 button or in possession of some website scanning software to give you an edge, you didn’t have a chance.

This year’s release has spent it’s 8 years in 1st fill Oloroso sherry casks. As always with Kilkerran it is non-chill filtered and natural colour.

So, was the rush to get a bottle worthwhile?

Nose : Typical sherry notes of sweet and fruity raisin, along with stewed red fruits and orange. There’s dark roast coffee, a little bitter chocolate, tobacco and demerara sugar. I get quite a bit of digestive biscuit too, along with burnt rubber, sea salt and oak.

Palate : Lovely and coating mouthfee with lots of bitter, espresso coffee on the palate which lingers throughout, along with some charred wood. The bitter notes are balanced by a sweet, fruity and juicy, raisin, blackcurrant and demerara sugar, with a smoky and slightly sulphury edge, but not overly so in my book. This is nice sulphur. Black pepper, which lingers in the finish, along with oak, bitter honeycomb, vanilla cream and salt.

Conclusion : Firmly in the sherry bomb category! Coffee drinkers will like this I think. There is lots of espresso coffee on the palate, but there is also a sweet and juicy, fruitiness which works well with the bitter and then the saltiness later on. A very good experience indeed and at £50 a bottle it’s good value. A shame it isn’t made in enough quantities to satisfy the demand.

Score : 8/10

Vital statistics
ABV : 56.9%
Non-chill filtered : Yes
Natural Colour : Yes
Maturation : First fill ex-oloroso sherry
Region : Campbeltown
Colour : Mahogany