New Kilchoman Series “The Sister Casks – A Maturation Journey” for Germany announced

To mark its 50th anniversary, German Kilchoman importer Hanseatische Weinhandelsgesellschaft Bremen has now announced “The Sister Casks – A Maturation Journey”, a new series of Kilchoman single cask bottlings.

The six releases consist of three pairs of “sister cask bottlings”, i.e. two casks that were filled on the same day and then stored side by side in the Kilchoman warehouses for many years before being bottled on the same day.

Due to the large number of precisely labelled single cask bottlings released each year, Kilchoman has always offered whisky lovers the opportunity to compare different maturation periods or cask types to a degree that is hardly possible with any other distillery. With the new series, it is now even possible to compare casks where all the maturation parameters were the same. This is a fascinating insight into the “mystery” of cask maturation that Hanseatische Weinhandelsgesellschaft has made possible.

The casks selected by Peter Wills and Stephan Ehmke are two 13-year-old 1st fill bourbon barrels, two 15-year-old Oloroso sherry cask maturations (initially 11 years each in Oloroso butts, then approx. 4 years in Oloroso hogsheads) and two 9-year-old 100% Islay 1st fill bourbon barrels. The two Oloroso sherry cask maturations are among the oldest bottlings of this cask type released by Kilchoman to date. After Kilchoman released the last two remaining Oloroso sherry butts from 2006 as 16-year-olds last year, according to the distillery, the remaining stock of sherry casks from 2008 still available in Kilchoman’s warehouses after the latest 15-year-old bottlings for Germany and the USA is said to be less than 10…

With the two nine-year-old 100% Islay Single Farm Single Malt casks 650/2014 and 653/2014, a comparison with the sister cask 642/2014, which was released at the age of 8 years in the summer of 2023 as part of the sixth Uniquely Islay series An Samhradh 2023, should also be very interesting.

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Here are the details of the individual bottlings:

• 13 yo Single Cask (Sister Cask Series – 1st Fill Bourbon Sister Cask 1)
  Cask 478/2010, 4.9.2010 – 5.2.2024, 54,5 %, 248 bottles
• 13 yo Single Cask (Sister Cask Series – 1st Fill Bourbon Sister Cask 2)
  Cask 479/2010, 4.9.2010 – 5.2.2024, 53,8 %, 235 bottles
• 15 yo Single Cask (Sister Cask Series – Oloroso Sherry Sister Cask 1) 
  Cask 633/2008, 4.12.2008 – 5.2.2024, 52,4 %, 302 bottles
• 15 yo Single Cask (Sister Cask Series – Oloroso Sherry Sister Cask 2)
  Cask 639/2008, 4.12.2008 – 5.2.2024, 51,1 %, 271 bottles
• 100% Islay 9 yo Single Cask (Sister Cask Series – 100% Islay Sister Cask 1)
  Cask 650/2014, 20.8.2014 – 5.2.2024, 55,3 %, 200 bottles
• 100% Islay 9 yo Single Cask (Sister Cask Series – 100% Islay Sister Cask 2)
  Cask 653/2014, 20.8.2014 – 5.2.2024, 56,7 %, 248 bottles

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