Macaloney’s Island Distillery Kildara (46%)

(This is another in a series of occasional reviews of notable whiskies from British Columbia, presented as a lead-up to my story about BC single malt whisky for the winter issue of Full Pour magazine. Subscribe now.)

British Columbia’s Vancouver Island is a bit of a treasure trove of single malt whisky distilleries, with admittedly not exactly a Speyside-like intensity, but an impressive concentration for North America. From the mid-Island Shelter Point to the Victoria breweries-cum-distilleries, Phillips and Moon Under Water, there are no fewer than a half-dozen single malt producers within a three hour drive of one another, and their whiskies are pretty much uniformly impressive.

One such operation is Macaloney’s Island Distillery, which like its Victoria neighbours Phillips and Moon, also has a brewing side, the Twa Dogs Brewery. Spend more than a couple of minutes speaking with Graeme Macaloney, the company’s founder and principle owner, though, and you will quickly come to understand where his true passions lie, that being distilling, or more specifically, whisky distilling.

From modest beginnings bottling vatted single malts of Scottish origin, through a prolonged dispute with the Scottish Whisky Association (SWA) over the distillery’s use of words like ‘Glen’ and ‘Caledonian,’ which the SWA insisted were inextricably linked to Scotland, right up to the present day, Macaloney’s has had what you could call an eventful first nine years of existence. One might say this all culminated earlier this year with the title of ‘World’s Best Pot Still Whisky’ being awarded to Kildara by the UK-based World Whisky Awards.

As per its award, Kildara is a pot still whisky made in the Irish fashion, meaning triple distillation, a mix of malted and unmalted barley in the mash, and a complicated system of cuts occurring during fermentation. Macaloney’s then ups the ante for Kildara, as it does for nearly all of its whiskies, by maturing it in a complicated mix of oak barrels. For the award-winner, this is made up of 45% bourbon oak, 40% oloroso sherry butts, 10% virgin American oak, and 5% Pedro Ximénez casks.

Deep copper in colour, it would seem visually, at least, that the PX barrel has disproportionate influence on this spirit, an observation with which the nose concurs. The two sherry expressions combine in the aroma produce something quite unlike what you’d find in a typical Irish pot still whiskey, with prominent notes of dark fruitcake and roasted hazelnut, high cocoa content chocolate and dried orange zest. On the palate, the start is sweet, offering layers of milk and dark chocolate and dried fruit, leading to a spicier middle with considerable nuttiness (hazelnut, almond), notes of vanilla, a touch of charred wood, and citrus zest, finishing with vanilla, charred citrus, and a bit of baked brown spice.

While Ireland might have provided the inspiration for its creation, Kildara is a superb sipping whisky of a style all its own.

94 ($125)