Kilchoman Genesis: Peating – Stage 3

Just in time for the end of the year, Peating – Stage 3, the third of the eight-bottling Genesis series, was released. As previously reported, the Genesis series developed by the German Kilchoman importer Hanseatische Weinhandelsgesellschaft Bremen is a German version of the Small Batch Series for Selected Markets with a higher quality design and packaging and a special marketing story.

The marketing concept of the Genesis series is to trace the production of Kilchoman whisky “from barley to bottle” with individual bottlings. The eight stages of the journey, which takes at least 1130 days (as Kilchoman founder Anthony Wills puts it), from harvesting the barley in the company’s own fields, malting, peating, mashing, fermenting, distilling, maturing to bottling, are each to be addressed by a separate bottling, thus honouring the traditions of a farm distillery.

The bottle design of the series is very appealing and the packaging is not the Kilchoman standard cardboard box but the sturdy hinged box that is already known from some Kilchoman special bottlings.

As the name Peating – Stage 3 already reveals, the bottling is dedicated to the 3rd production step of Kilchoman whisky production, the peating of the barley, i.e. days 13-14. The peat Kilchoman cuts on Islay gives Kilchoman whisky its so characteristic maritime-smoky note. The malt produced by Kilchoman itself has a peat level of about 20 ppm after peating, about 30% of Kilchoman whisky production is made with it and marketed as Kilchoman 100% Islay, the remaining about 70% is made with malt from the Port Ellen Maltings, which has a peat level of 50 ppm.

Genesis Peating – Stage 3 is a small batch release with 70% bourbon, 5% oloroso sherry and 25% STR casks. The basis of the Small Batch Series for Selected Markets, which was introduced in summer 2019, is, to put it simply, a Machir Bay vatting with 46% alcohol, to which another special type of cask is then added. It is emphasised by the importer that the Genesis 3 is a whisky made from both 20ppm peated whisky from the Kilchoman Kiln and 50ppm peated whisky from the Port Ellen Maltings. This means that the three added STR casks (Shaved, Toasted and Re-charred ex-red wine casks) are 100% Islay casks, because the Machir Bay base of the whole thing is peated with 50 ppm, as is well known.

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This mixing of its two differently peated production lines, already practised with Genesis 1 and 2, is completely unusual at Kilchoman, but was necessary with this series in order to do at least some justice to the marketing story.

The alcohol content of the bottling is 49.4%, and the edition, which was increased to 4,200 bottles for the second release, was cut back again to 3,600 bottles.

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