Kilchoman US Releases in 2022 – An Overview

Last year, I published an overview article on the Kilchoman bottlings released in the USA for the first time. The large number of releases in a rather confusing market combined with the logistical problems caused by COVID and post-Brexit – for example, there were and are usually several months between the bottling/announcement of a release and its appearance – made such an overview seem very sensible.The overwhelming response I received to this article proved this to be true, and so this year I once again would like to highlight the US Kilchoman bottlings of the past year.

While the record number of 19 Small Batch and Single Cask releases of 2021 was not reached again, the 14 releases of 2022 are again an amazing number. Especially when you know that since the beginning of 2022 Kilchoman has had to quota the bottlings made available to importers worldwide – at the moment there are simply not enough Kilchoman casks of a certain age available.

The fact that there are still 14 bottlings shows on the one hand the importance Kilchoman continues to attach to the US market and takes into account in its quota allocation, and on the other hand the tireless work of the US importer ImpEx Beverages, which is certainly one of the most active Kilchoman importers worldwide.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Sam Filmus and his staff at ImpEx Beverages, Jared Card and Travis Williams, who once again supported me with a wealth of information.

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Small Batch Releases

As we have already reported several times on kilchomania.com, the series of Small Batch Releases for Selected Markets launched by Kilchoman in 2019 is particularly popular and successful in the USA. This has been further underpinned with three new bottlings in 2022.

The “USA Small Batch No. 7” was released in September 2022 and featured an STR cask – a specially reconditioned red wine cask (the letters stand for Shaved, Toasted and Re-charred) – as an additional cask to the Machir Bay vatting. The ratios are given as 70% Bourbon, 5% Oloroso Sherry and 25% STR.

In addition to the “USA Small Batch No. 7”, two further bottlings appeared in December 2022 exclusively for two large liquor chains. Apart from the USA, small batch releases for special retailers are only available in the other two top 3 Kilchoman markets, France and Germany – another indication of the popularity of the series in the USA.

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The Texas liquor chain “Spec´s. Wine, Spirits & Finer Foods” was founded in 1962 and is now active at 180 locations exclusively in Texas. With the “Small Batch No. 1”, an exclusive Kilchoman Small Batch for Spec’s appeared for the first time in December 2022.
The additional cask here is a Calvados Cask. The proportions are 70% Bourbon, 5% Oloroso Sherry and 25% Calvados.

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Total Wine & More calls itself “America’s Wine Superstore”. Founded in 1991, the company is the largest independent supermarket chain for wine, spirits and beer with 46 superstores in 27 US states.
With this size, it’s no wonder that in 2022 an exclusive Kilchoman Small Batch release was bottled for Total Wine for the 2nd time.
For the “Small Batch No. 2 for Total Wine Concierge”, a Sauternes cask was added to the Machir Bay vatting. The proportions are given as 70% Bourbon, 5% Oloroso Sherry and 25% Sauternes.

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Single Cask Releases

In addition to the 3 Small Batch Releases mentioned above, 11 single cask releases appeared either within the ImpEx Cask Evolution series, for various liquor shops or fan groups:

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This single cask release for the Californian wine and spirits shop K&L Wine Merchants was released in May 2022. The whisky was initially matured for just over 6 years in a 1st fill bourbon barrel, then decanted on 11.1.2021 into an STR Cask in which it was finished for one year.

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For the well-known Bar Agricole in San Francisco, this 10-year-old bourbon barrel was bottled in February 2022. The guests of the bar could enjoy the bottling from May 2022.

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In some liquor stores of the Mid Atlantic Region – this single cask bottling of a three-year-old Kilchoman (!) was available since mid-August.
This bottling goes back to the initiative of Jared Card, the Mid Atlantic Region manager of the US importer ImpEx Beverages, As a fan of young Kilchoman whiskies, in times when the focus of interest is concentrated on older and older Kilchoman releases, he wanted to turn his attention once again to the very young Kilchoman bottlings that caused such a sensation in the early days of the Kilchoman distillery. However, it took him some time to convince Kilchoman, in the person of James Wills, who is responsible for the US market, to bottle such a young Kilchoman cask nowadays. He then brought the well-known whisky group Cask Chasers on board as a partner. This group of whisk(e)y enthusiasts is particularly active on Facebook and also runs an excellent whisky podcast.
The taste comparison between the first Kilchoman whiskies released over 10 years ago and this bottling is extremely interesting for every Kilchoman fan. In the meantime, not only the type of barley used has changed, but also the production processes have been optimized over the years.

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ImpEx Cask Evolution 01/2022: In September 2022, the US Kilchoman importer ImpEx Beverages continued its highly regarded Cask Evolution series with an STR Cask Finish.
The whisky was first matured for just over 7 years in a Buffalo Trace Bourbon Barrel and was then finished for a further year (just under 14 months to be precise – decanted on 11.1.2021) in a shaved, toasted and re-charred ex-red wine cask.

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Also in September, the number 02/2022 of the Cask Evolution series followed.
This time it was a good 7 years old full maturation in a Pedro Ximénez Sherry Hogshead.

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In September 2022, exactly one year after the last bottling, the Chicago liquor shop Warehouse Liquors already released its 4th Kilchoman Single Cask Release – a good 7 years old bourbon barrel.

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Irene Tan is the owner of Canterbury Liquors, Connecticut. Very active on social media, she is known as a whisky expert. Under the name Whisky Mentors Pick, she has already released numerous single cask bottlings for her shop. In December 2022, her first Kilchoman release appeared with a 10-year-old bourbon barrel.

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A 7-year-old bourbon barrel was bottled in June 2022 for The Mid Atlantic, the so-called Mid Atlantic States on the east coast of the USA. As of December 2022, it could be purchased in the region’s liquor shops.

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After ImpEx Beverages released the first Mezcal cask finish for the USA in its Cask Evolution series in July 2021, the bottling mentioned here is only the second in the USA for caskshare.com. The whisky was first matured in a bourbon barrel for 7 years and then finished in a Mezcal cask for 18 months.

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The Texan spirits chain “Spec’s. Wine, Spirits & Finer Foods” released a single cask bottling of a 12-year-old bourbon barrel in addition to its own small batch release in December.

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ImpEx Cask Evolution 03/2022: As the third bottling within the Cask Evolution series, this bottling of a bourbon barrel aged 12 years to the day followed in December 2022.

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Machir Bay Collaborative Vattings

In addition to the 3 Small Batch and 11 Single Cask releases, the Machir Bay Collaborative Vattings released in the USA in 2022 are also listed for the sake of completeness.

With this product line, launched in 2018, Kilchoman opened up the possibility for local whisky retailers to have a custom bottling of Kilchoman’s standard release.

As is well known, the normal Machir Bay bottlings have an oloroso sherry cask content of around 10%, but with the Collaborative Vattings, the respective retailer can choose between four different variants with slightly different proportions: 5%, 7.5%, 12.5% and 15% sherry cask whisky.

The boxes and bottles in the normal Machir Bay design are provided with an individual sticker of the retailer. The minimum purchase quantity is 20 cases, i.e. 120 bottles.

A full 22 MBCVs appeared in the USA in 2022, also a number unmatched in any other country.

Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting92.5/7.5Total Wine
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting85/15QFC U-Village, WA
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting87.5/12.511th Avenue Liquor, OR
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting95/5JVS, CA
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting85/15JVS, CA
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting95/5Pop’s Wine & Spirits, GA
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting85/15K&L, CA (#5)
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting87.5/12.5Zipps Liquor, TX
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting85/15Spec´s, TX
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting85/15Colorado
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting95/5Hi-Time Wine Cellars, CA
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting87.5/12.5The Whisky Shop, San Francisco, CA
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting87.5/12.5In Fine Spirits, IL
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting85/15Cask Share.com
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting95/5Total Wine, NJ
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting85/15Salem Battlecreek, OR
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting92.5/7.5Gold Eagle Wine & Spirits, IL
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting87.5/12.5Applejack Wine & Spirits, CO
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting87.5/12.5Bevy’s Littleton, CO
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting87.5/12.5Fillerup/Bergen Whisky Club, NJ
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting87.5/12.5Wall to Wall Liquors, NE
Kilchoman Machir Bay Collaborative Vatting95/5Canal Joe´s

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