For years, Campbeltown was the whisky capital of the world. And in its heyday, there were as many as 30 different distilleries, now almost unimaginable. For a long time, Glen Scotia and Springbank were the only survivors.

However, this has changed since 2004, with the revival of Glengyle. At the time of its reopening, the distillery had been quiet for nearly 80 years. Over the years there were a few attempts to revitalize the Glengyle distillery, but this failed until J&A Mitchel, owner of Springbank and Cadenhead’s, bought the buildings in 2000.

It took them four years to renovate and refurbish the distillery, mainly with second-hand equipment from other distilleries, but then the first whisky was finally produced. However, not called Glengyle, as that name is owned by the Loch Lomond Group, but Kilkerran.

Fast forward, Glengyle distillery now has a nice range that is released in batches just like we know from Springbank, like the Kilkerran 12 year old, the 8 year old Kilkerran Cask Strength and the most recent addition Kilkerran Heavily Peated.

And that brings us to our second Virtual Open Day festival bottling, the Kilkerran 14 year old, which has matured in refill bourbon casks and is triple distilled. Bottled at 57.8% ABV.

Kilkerran 14 year old tasting notes:

Nose: quite fresh and fruity. Fresh linen. Vanilla. Green bananas and mango. A creamy caramel pudding. Later also a mineral note and slightly waxy. A very light note of peat.

Taste: oh really nice! Full of flavour. Green bananas. A hint of vanilla and some white chocolate. Pink grapefruit. Liquorice towards the end and some wood spices.

Finish: mid-long to long with almonds and liquorice. Slightly peppery and a peat note.

Although I do not detect many different flavours, it’s really good. A nice creamy and good mouthfeel, well balanced too. It’s dangerously drinkable and I somehow want to keep drinking this. Quite addictive! You know that rumour they put something in crisps so you want to keep eating it? I now suspect Glengyle of this too…