Malt, Salt & Earth - Coastal Whiskies at Hamilton Beer & Wine
Notes on the lineup…
Caol Ila 15YO Unpeated Style 61.5%
Maturation - Refill American oak / European oak butts
Region - Islay (north east coast).
Islay is famous for its big peaty malts but Caol Ila offers a slightly lighter style with a peat level of 35ppm, long ferments, lots of copper use and, typically, bourbon cask maturation.
Here we find it in its rare unpeated form and what a treat it is.
Kilchoman 'Sanaig' Cask Strength 57.8%
Maturation - Bourbon and sherry casks (with further finishing in oloroso sherry hogshead)
Region - Islay
Kilchoman is Islay’s farm distillery set up in 2005 with its first core release in 2012.
25% of its barley requirements come from Islay (mostly from fields around the distillery) and it has two small malting floors and kilns which produce a medium-peated malt – the heavily peated with which it is mixed comes from Port Ellen.
Fermentation is long, helping to create fruitiness to balance the phenolics, while a wood policy using a high percentage of first-fill ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks brings real pedigree.
PPM - 20 to 50ppm
Peat is sourced from Cnoc Dubh banks near the distillery for their 100% Islay expressions and from the east side of Islay, near Port Ellen, for their commercial malt.
Clynelish 10yo Special Release 2023 57.5 %
Maturation - First-fill ex-bourbon American oak
Region - Speyside
Clynelish is famous for its waxiness, which was discovered to come from the build-up of gunk in the feints receiver (when removed one year in the silent season, the waxiness disappeared).
The distillery was founded in 1819 by the Duke of Sutherland (during the brutal ‘clearances’). It was mothballed in the 1930s and then reopened in the 1960s. A second distillery known as Clynelish B was built next to it at this time and the original was then mothballed only to reopen as Brora. Brora went on to achieve cult status only to close in 1983. It was reopened by Diageo in 2021.
Highland Park Cask Strength Release No.3 64.1%
Maturation - First-fill sherry American & European oak
Region - The Islands (Orkney Isles)
Highland Park’s trademark is a soft and floral peatiness thanks to the high heather composition of the peat on the island (which makes up 20% of the barley used for each mash, with the balance coming from the mainland at around 4ppm).
The distillery has copped some flak over the years for its absurd and rather commercial Norse-themed range - packed full with strange NAS expressions. It has now moved to a smaller core range which is exclusively age stated.
Tobermory 21yo Oloroso Cask Finish 46.3%
Maturation - 3 year finish in oloros sherry casks
Region - The Islands (Isle of Mull)
Tobermory was established as Ledaig distillery in 1798 by John Sinclair, but had an absolutely terrible run with constant closure and sale to new owners, spending much of the next two hundred years shut. It changed ownership in 1979 and was then renamed Tobermory. In 2007 - the peaty Ledaig brand was launched as a 10-year-old at around 30 to 40 ppm.
The fermentation time is relatively short, but it is the unusually shaped stills which lie at the heart of the Tobermory style. They have both boil bulbs and a strange S-shaped kink in their lyne arms, all of which increases reflux. As refulx increases, whisky becomes lighter and cleaner.
Ledaig 'Hidden Spirits' 2009/12yo 54.2 %
Maturation - unknown but judging by the pale colour, this must be a bourbon cask (possibly second fill).
Ledaig is the peaty expression made at Tobermory distillery on the Isle of Mull. The peat spec is around 35 ppm - less than many of the big heavy-hitting Islays.
Cladach The Coastal Blend Special Release 2018 57.1%
Maturation - First-fill American oak ex-bourbon casks, refill American oak hogsheads, refill European oak butts and ex-bodega European oak butts.
Part of the 2018 Special Releases, Cladach – meaning ‘coastline’ – is made using only single malts made at Diageo’s coastal distilleries; Caol Ila, Lagavulin, Oban, Talisker, Clynelish and Inchgower.
