Pre-Christmas Party and New Beginnings - Peater vs Peater

Christmas comes early as all of us would be in various states of overseas-ness over the Christmas period. So, early drinks, and finally opening the Talisker 25 from 2007. I've been waiting ages for this grand opening. So exciting. It's older than I actually am! Amazing that The Whisky Distillery was selling this for the price of 2/3 a Yamazaki 18. They probably bought it at a much lower price several years ago, but frankly, $600 for a 25 year old whisky from 10 years ago, still great.

There were other drinks on the table too, and I'm actually going to review the Kilchoman 2008 vintage first, and save the best for last. I've also not reviewed the Highland Park Harald, but that's easily done some time later. It's a much less exciting dram anyway.

In any case, a young, new Kilchoman and an old Talisker. The Kilchoman was probably still malting when the Talisker was bottled. So that's some nice continuity there. Nothing screams Christmas like peat and chimney smoke, with songs of white Christmases and snow. Never mind Jesus, we'll let the Church celebrate that. Those who're not Christians, let's just spend and drink yourselves silly. Or something more classy than that please. And, of course, never mind the fact that we don't have chimneys nor snow in Singapore.

Let's start with the young upstart.

Kilchoman 2008 Vintage (45% abv)

Colour - Gold

Nose - Peat. Fairly intense peat, but always kept in balance by a great depth of fruits. Citrus, peaches, vanilla, a healthy dose of American oak. Apples and honey. Wood smoke.

Palate - Peaty, but more smoke than peat. Fantastic. Soft peach and apple, and some coconut shavings. Vanilla and oak. Mmm. Figs, and even slightly spicy - clove and nutmeg, with a suggestion of parsley.

Finish - Not very long, though the peat does linger a bit. Smoke too. Spicy at the finish on light pepper, and maybe one teaspoon of malty sweetness and one shred of coconut.

Overall - Some people call this the best Kilchoman to date. I've not had the limited edition releases, so am unable to verify this, but this Kilchoman is pretty top-notch. Better than the Sanaig and the Machir Bay and Loch Gorm and 100% Islay...you get the picture. DW rated this higher than the Talisker 25 (heresy!!), and I can sort of see why. This has a good depth and intensity, great development (without the age caveat), balance, poise, character, etc. I think the Talisker 25 edges this slightly (personal preference for the clarity of the T25, but the Kilchoman is actually more flavourful up until the finish), but frankly, for a 7 year old to take the contest with a 25 year old classic down to the wire is astounding. This goes onto the favourites list. Very reasonably priced too, at about $170 or so at LMDW. Reasonable for its quality, that is.

So, what's the competition like? I'll put it up next week. Gonna head to the airport soon to travel to Taiwan. The day that I'm planning to visit Kavalan distillery in Yilan county, Master Distiller Ian Chang is actually here in Singapore on some promotional event with whisky/food pairings. Such terrible timing. Shall try everything at the distillery cafe to make up for it.