Kilkerran 8 years Bourbon Cask Strength Batch 8 with 55.8% Review by WhiskyJason 

Terrific video, Jason! When dealing with spirits above 48%, I've discovered that pouring about one-fifth of the freshly opened bottle into another clean, dry bottle for oxidation can make a significant impact. Within a week, I can already discern a noticeable difference. This technique proved particularly effective when applied to the Oban 10 Diego Special Release.

I haven't been able to find the Kilk 8 bourbon, but I do love the Kilk 8 sherry. Right now the Kilk, Arran, and Tamdhu are my favorites in my collection. Like you, I wish these campletown would do more unpeated varieties like Bunnahabhain has done with Islay.

This one is noticeably different than the earlier Bourbon batches. Agree with your assessment albeit an interesting pour. Cheers 🥃

Never have had pleasure to try or buy KK8 always on ballot and never won any ballot. 🤷‍♂️. Love 12, 16(got the newest one 😁 and heavily peated. Fantastic stuff. All i know from others whisky lovers this bourbon edition is banger. Sherry one is bit disappointing. Even i know this still wish to have a dram. Good show Jason. Cheers 👍😁🥂🙋🏻‍♂️

Hi Jason. Great video 😋. Very interesting facts about the pricing and how you got your bottles. This one actually benefits a lot from air and time. It only gets better. Roy aquavitae did an uncorking of this one in his lately vpub about cask strength (end 2023) and seemed extremely happy with the neck pour already 😅. I opened my bottle arround the same time but did not get that WOW effect. The next pours after weeks from opening got better. The last one I had from just below the bottle shoulder level was the best(glass sat alone about an hour before sipping). So yeah, this whisky needs time... And it rewards back. Any plans to review the last third of your bottle? Cheers.

Jason kudos for your honest transparency about the financials and your palate. Along with your deep dive nerd-outs with casking details, that is a primary reason why u remain a fav WhiskyTuber eventhough your taste prefs do not really match mine!

The Kilkerrans I find boring as hell out of the bottle, I couldn't believe the 12 won an award when I tried it, but once it was open a couple of months it turned into perfection, so then I was like ok, this is good.

Jason, I do have the 12 Yr. Kilkerran and enjoy it but don't drink it very often. I switched from Bourbon to Scotch over 20 years ago and never looked back.I to do not care for heavily peated whisky and the 12 year is about the limit for smoky peat for me. I have been trying to get used to the peated scotch for the past 2 years because my son loves it. My biggest mistake was purchasing Ardbeg 10, so I only have it for my son, I won't touch it. J.W. 15 Yr. is OK and Lagavvulin 16 is the one that gradually eased me into peat. The heavily peated Kilkerran's goes for twice the price as the 12Yr. Kilkerran here in the states, so that's fine with me. I enjoy your video's and maybe sometime in the future you can do a sample of the best value scotch at a limit of 100 Euro price tag. I usually try to purchase the nominees of the OSWA awards that are not peated and look forward to the 2023 awards. Keep up the good work. Rob

Coincidently I got a bottle of this Kilkerran yesterday from an auction and I’m waiting for it tomorrow. About the casks they use, there is an 8 year old port matured wich I almost got in another auction. Would love to try it.

Jason, I believe *all* Kilkerran whiskies have *some* peat, not sure but maybe 12ppm? In that regard they're similar to Springbank which always has a little peat. Springbank uses the Longrow label for their "heavily peated" expressions (~55ppm? but it's nothing like Islay peated with similar ppm), and at least the nas label says "Longrow peated", though I'm not sure that other Longrows like the 18 do? In contrast, Kilkerran just have "heavily peated" special releases--not sure the ppm, but maybe similar?, rather than a separately named label/brand, and they use that phrase somewhere on the label. For unpeated Springbank they again have a separate label, Hazelburn, but even then I've read that some batches *may* re-use some barrels that previously had peated whisky in them, or else there was perhaps some residual peat content/influence left in the distillery system despite/after cleaning. So Hazelburn is zero peat used when malting the barley, but not necessarily 100% unpeated in taste every time--some reviewers occasionally detect a very faint hint. I know you want the label to show "peated" on it as customer information/warning, similar to your desire for same for sulphur candle-treated casks, but in terms of Scotch distilleries that's not how they generally do things, at least so far. Compare Benromach, Highland Park, Talisker, etc. Those whiskies with (roughly) similarly moderate peat I think do not have the word peat on their (main) label--though Benromach do use "Peat Smoke" on labels for their more heavily peated releases (~40+ppm). They partly rely upon whisky drinkers just knowing what to expect from those brands, though there is info. on websites, commentary, etc. As, I think, do more heavily peated productions from e.g. Islay distilleries, etc.--Ardbeg, Laphroaig, etc. For peat in whiskies, the ppm numbers are arguably misleading because those are measures of inputs. Depending on distillery steps taken, the peat influence can be much reduced in the final output. There's at least one distillery--I've forgotten which, is it Torabhaig? ("bh" pr. "v", similar to Bunnahabhain)--that gives ppm figures from *after* production. And different sources of peat can have/contribute rather different aromas/flavours. For a relative novice (definitely not you) the above may seem deeply arcane, but it's surprising how a little experience changes that impression and it begins to seem much more understandable--if not strictly "logical". But I'm unlike you in that I can enjoy both unpeated and peated whiskies. Maybe the "problem" (not necessarily a problem at all) is that, as you've said, Springbank is not often in your wheelhouse and so you naturally haven't spent as much time researching it? Hence your assumption that Kilkerran would be unpeated. ---- As to Kilkerran and casks, they follow the same pattern as Springbank in that they like to occasionally experiment with different casks--as you'll know having met some of them: same company, exact same people/groups in production. Cask choice can range from subtle to heavy-handed influence, and in the case of the former is arguably part of batch variation that some distilleries (incl. Mitchell & Co.) welcome as part of the "craft". Some Kilkerran releases have minor tweaks to the casks used and so are not noted on the label (e.g. 16yo), while others have significant effect are are noted on the label--some 8yo predominantly Sherry, Bourbon, or Port cask releases are labelled as such. Maybe what you want is a qr code on every bottle from every producer?

Is there any video that you don't complain?