Inchmoan 12 year old (2019 bottling)

(Loch Lomond cluster homepage)

Inchmoan is the first of the four Loch Lomond styles reviewed during this wee LL whisky survey. Whisky Magazine has an article about the distillery, wherein John Peterson provides a rundown of how the different styles are made. I can't really keep it straight, but to summarize: Inchmoan = Inchmurrin but with 40ppm of phenols in the barley.

I've tried two Inchmoans before today. The first was a remarkably foul effluvium bottled for someone's enemies at Whisky Fair. The second was......Inchmoan 12 year old, and I didn't like that one either, but it was approachable and fascinating.

I am trying the 12 year old again, but this time I'm combining/vatting three 50mL Inchmoan 12yo minis with the same bottling code, rather than sipping a sample from an unknown bottle. And it's getting paired up one of this week's other Inchmoans in order to gain additional perspective.

Distillery: Loch Lomond
Style: Inchmoan
Owner: Loch Lomond Distillery Company
Region: Highlands (Western)

Age: minimum 12 years

Maturation: recharred US oak and refill bourbon casks
Bottling date: 09.08.2019

Alcohol by Volume: 46%

Chillfiltered? No
e150a? Yes
(from a trio of minis)

NOTES

Neither like smoke nor kiln, the nose's unique peated side reads closer to peated wheat and peated yeast, with a hint of diesel. Kale chips, saline and charred marshmallow fill in the corners. The palate is lightly sweet and lightly metallic with hints of citron and nectarine. The peat builds with time, developing its own style, like peated oats and peated newspaper. It finishes very well with guava, nectarines, cigarette ash and a pinch of herbal bitterness.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

This was a lot better than the sample I tried three years ago. The whisky remains quirky, but it's much more of a solid unit now with the odd phenolics merging solidly with the fruit, and the recharred wood staying out of the picture. It's less of a beast than Croftengea sometimes proves to be, and may give Islay fans a different view into peated whisky. A promising start!

Availability - Asia and Europe only (I think)
Pricing - $40-$65 in Europe, cheaper in Japan thanks to the yen's drop

Rating - 84