Taste Guide: Blanc de Blancs Champagne Cask

Blanc de Blancs (literally "white from white" in French) refers to a wine made exclusively from white grapes. In the Champagne wine-growing region, where the term originally comes from, this is a sparkling wine produced almost exclusively from Chardonnay grapes. This contrasts with Blanc de Noirs, which is made only from red grapes. This is cheaper, as Chardonnay grapes are considerably more expensive. However, a Blanc de Blancs is also much easier to age and has the potential to develop very favourably over time.

In the summer of 2022, Kilchoman bought 40 Blanc de Blancs casks from Champagne for the first time. Twelve of them were used for finishing, the rest were filled with New Make for full maturation.

The finishing casks were almost 6-year-old ex-Bourbon barrels (No. 1100/2016 – 1111/2016), which were decanted into Blanc de Blancs casks on 8 August and 6 September 2022.

At Fèis Ìle 2023, participants in the masterclass with Anthony Wills on 1 June 2023 were able to taste a Blanc de Blancs finish (cask no. 1110/2016) for the first time.

The world’s first Blanc de Blancs Cask Finish bottling was released in July 2023 as part of the Uniquely Islay Series – An Samhradh 2023 in Germany (1111/2016). The release for the Alaska-based beer, wine and spirits chain Brown Jug (1102/2016) was bottled a few days earlier, but was not released until August 2023. The 2nd Blanc de Blancs Cask Finish for the USA followed at the end of August 2023 with the bottling of cask no. 1108/2016 in the renowned ImpEx Cask Evolution Series.

In October 2023, two more Blanc de Blancs Single Cask Finish bottlings were released: one in the Canadian province of Québec (1109/2016) and one for the Italian market (1100/2016).

A wider audience was first introduced to a Kilchoman Blanc de Blancs cask finish with the release of the 12th Kilchoman Club Edition, a two-cask small batch, on 6 December 2023.

Although the cask 1107/2016 was bottled for the Kilchoman Distillery Shop on 15 May 2023, it only appeared on the shelves of the Visitor Centre on 16 November 2023 as the seventh Blanc de Blancs Finish release of 2023.

This marked the end of the first wave of Kilchoman Blanc de Blanc Finish bottlings, with finishing times of mostly under a year. The second wave, with a significantly longer finishing period of two and a half years, started in January 2025 with a Blanc de Blancs Finish release for three German whisky shops. As expected, these bottlings have a much more noticeable Blanc de Blancs taste.

.

Previous Blanc de Blancs cask releases by Kilchoman:

ReleaseCask No.FilledBottledMaturation
Blanc de Blancs Single Cask Finish for Beija-Flor – Italian Cities: Milan1100/201626.11.201601.09.2023Finish: over 1 year
Blanc de Blanc(s) Single Cask Finish for Brown Jug, Alaska1102/201626.11.201625.05.2023Finish: 9 months
Blanc de Blanc(s) Single Cask Finish for The Distillery Shop1107/201626.11.201615.05.2023Finish: 9 months
Blanc de Blancs Single Cask Finish – ImpEx Cask Evolution 02/20231108/200626.11.201610.07.2023Finish: 11 months
Blanc de Blancs Single Cask Finish pour Le Québec1109/201630.11.201630.06.2023Finish: 10 month
Blanc de Blancs Single Cask Finish (Uniquely Islay Series – An Samhradh 2023, #3/10)1111/201630.11.201605.06.2023Finish: 9 months
Small Batch Release for The Kilchoman Club, 12th Edition1101/2016 & 1110/201626.11.2016 & 30.11.201630.11.2023Finish: 14 months
Blanc de Blancs Single Cask Finish for Whisky31103/201626.11.201608.01.2025Finish: 28 months

.

.