Kingsbarns Dream to Dram

Many of the online reviews of this whisky lean heavily on the words "young" and "Lowlands", and that's not helpful. Firstly, of course it's young. It's barely 3 years old. So rather than using the Y-word, I'll attempt to use sensory descriptors. Secondly, geographic location no longer determines what a whisky tastes like, if it ever really did. There are unpeated Islays and heavily-peated Speysides. There are triple-distilled single malts from Speyside and Campbeltown, and there are double-distilled whiskies from the Lowlands. So I won't use latitude measurements to describe what a liquid tastes like.

Kingsbarns Distillery opened in 2014, then its spirit started going into barrels in early 2015. The facility currently fills 24 casks per week, though the distillery has a higher capacity. Kingsbarns is located in Fife and the barley is from......Fife. Novel!

Dream to Dram is the distillery's first widely-released legal whisky. It's mostly from bourbon casks, though there's a portion from STR casks. STR = shaved, toasted and re-charred wine casks. Yes, this is now a thing.

Distillery: Kingsbarns
Owner: Wemyss Distillery Ltd.

Region: Lowlands (Fife)

Age: minimum 3 years

Maturation: 90% 1st fill bourbon casks + 10% shaved, toasted and re-charred wine casks

Bottling Date: 2018
Alcohol by Volume: 46%
Chillfiltration? No
Colorant? No
(from a purchased sample)

NEAT
The nose starts out with lots of pears and yeast. Very worty. Ground mustard, grass, oatmeal and sugar. A barley note emerges then expands with time. Barley and a hint of vanilla lead the palate, followed by toasted nuts and cayenne pepper. It needs 10+ minutes of air, then there's almond biscotti, vanilla fudge and a hint of milk chocolate. Milk chocolate-covered almond biscotti, barley, pepper sauce and a little bit of sweetness finishes it out.

DILUTED TO ~40%abv, or < 1 tsp of water per 30mL whisky
Sour beer, cheesy yeast, barley and a squeeze of lemon in the nose. More heat in the palate than when the whisky was neat. Flavor-wise, there's barley, vanilla, flowers, ginger powder and a little bit of herbal bitterness. It finishes hotter as well. It's also more acidic and tangy. Barley and nuts.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
Forget adding water to this whisky, it plays best when neat and given some time in the glass. At times it's very close to wort, but at other times it seems like it's on its way to something very good. The mouthfeel is a little thin, but Dream to Dram makes for easy drinking and it's never too sweet. While I do look forward to this stuff after it has spent 10 full years in a cask, in the meantime I like it much better than the two Wolfburns I've tried. Good luck, Kingsbarns!

Availability - Many European specialty whisky retailers
Pricing - €40-€50 (w/VAT)
Rating - 79 (neat only)