Kilchoman x Land Rover '639' Review
Last month, Kilchoman put out a small batch release for a somewhat unusual reason: the launch of a new vehicle from Land Rover. This new vehicle is the Classic Defender Works V8 Islay Edition. There is a nice story mentioned in the linked post from Kilchoman about the connection between Islay, Kilchoman, and Land Rover. Apparently, one of the co-founders of Kilchoman, Kathy Wills, is the granddaughter of Spencer Wilks, one of the founders of Land Rover. The car also uses wood from Kilchoman casks for its center cubby box, which is a pretty interesting way to repurpose the wood.
Each car purchased comes with a bottle of the Kilchoman x Land Rover '639' whisky. Only 639 bottles of this whisky were produced as an homage to the 1965 Land Rover Series IIa (registration GXC 639C) owned by Spencer Wilks. This 1965 vehicle inspired the new Land Rover release.
The answer is no to the question of if we bought this car to get the whisky. We decided instead to buy the bottle through The Whisky Exchange, which was offering it for a pretty reasonable price. However, the shipping to the United States is where it gets a bit costly.
I wanted this one because I do love Pedro Ximenez sherry casks for aging a whisky. It’s a no age statement bottle, so it’s not clear how much sherry influence has made its way into the whisky. However, you have to believe Kilchoman would not put out something less than quality when paying tribute to Spencer Wilks. The other reason I was interested in this one is that I enjoyed visiting the Kilchoman distillery when I visited Islay. It’s very impressive how their ingredients are fully sourced from Islay, and how their entire process for making their whiskies takes place on Islay.
Bowmore has its Aston Martin series so Kilchoman needed its car-themed whisky. Let’s see if people will now start buying the Classic Defender Works V8 Islay Edition since all the bottles have been sold on The Whisky Exchange.
The Basics
Aged: Unknown
Bottles available: 639
Casks: Pedro Ximenez sherry
ABV: 51.3%
Color: Dark amber
Nose: Salt, cherry, BBQ
Cost: $164 or 130 pounds (includes shipping cost of $63 or 50 pounds shipping)
Purchased at: The Whisky Exchange
Taste
The first sip tastes of raisins and light cinnamon spice and then transitions into a heavy cinnamon spice flavor. It finishes with a very graceful transition from the cinnamon spice into a smoky after taste. I love whiskies like this because the sweet spice and smoke stick around long after you have finished. After you take your sips, inhale in and out to experience the beautiful flavors lingering on.
Neat or With Water
I preferred this dram with some water added. About 2 or 3 drops is a nice way to enhance the taste of dried fruit and spice while not compromising on the strong finish of spice and peat. I also tried it neat, but found there was a slight stinging taste from the alcohol.
It reminds me a lot of the Laphroaig Cairdeas 2021 Pedro Ximenez Casks whisky we just recently reviewed. I mentioned how the Laphroaig was similar to the Bruichladdich’s ROCK’NDAAL 01.2 so now we have three whiskies we can group together by flavor profile.
Summary
For a small batch, Pedro Ximenez sherry cask release, the price of this bottle was very reasonable through The Whisky Exchange. If not for the shipping costs to the United States, I would say this whisky is a steal. If you live in the UK or mainland Europe, I hope you went for this one because it’s a great deal without the shipping costs for such a nice whisky.
We will have to see what the future cost of this whisky will be as it appears in auctions and on the secondary market though. That will be the question moving forward as to whether the price meets expectations. I am very happy with this whisky for the price I paid and would definitely get another bottle for a similar price.
Hopefully Pedro Ximenez sherry casks are used again for future Kilchoman releases as it paired perfectly with these casks.