The Kilchoman Machir Bay 2012

Tasting notes:
     Hold this dram up to the light.  The legs are not legs (Ceci n’est pas les jambes?), but rather a statistical data sample, complete with a fat margin for error.  The nose is like a gunshot, if one’s shotgun shells were filled with smoked hazelnuts–and if that shot were aimed at a drying peat rick.  But that description belies the sheer beauty of the nose here, as does the following one:  it’s like sloe gin behind burning tires. [John:  No, it’s creamier than that.] OK, sloe gin behind burning tires next to a dairy?  At any rate, the mouth presents green Anaheim peppers and leeks on a grill, bright with flavor, but without sweetness, kinda like John when he’s in a mood. The mouthfeel is oily, like Molotov cocktail rags left over after we ran out of bottles.  There’s something subtle and whimsical and evanescent on the mouth that contradicts the nose:  the nose shouts Islay, while the mouth whispers come-ons.  Come on, come on, come on to Islay…  The finish slowly evolves from ginger snaps to Ricola™ cough drops to pencil shavings burned on a hookah filled with rosewater, offering a subtle finale that’s far from a fireworks display but is still something to behold.

Our thanks to Sam Filmus and ImpEx for the sample!