Kilkerran - Work in Progress 5 - Bourbon Wood versus Sherry Wood

The Glengyle Distillery has for a couple of years released different expressions in their "Work in Progress" line up. In 2013 they released the number 5 in this range. An 9 year old expression, one matured in bourbon - and the other in Sherry wood. Of each 9000 bottles were released at 46%. A sample of these has been sitting on the shelf for a while now, and I thought it might be fun to put them next to each other to see what the differences are. First up is the Bourbon Wood expression...

On the nose I find it to be a bit malty combined with olive oil, earthy and also some leather almost in it. Some red apple sweetness but also citrus freshness combined with almonds, spices, salt and feeling of a lake that is low with water revealing some briny, dirty earthy notes of wet wood, mud and dried seaweed. It sounds not that good, but it is not all bad trust me...

The palate is sweeter and more fruitier then the nose shows but the malt, and bit dryness of leather and nutmeg makes it interesting. The earthy notes are pushed to the back to make room for the sweeter ones and the medium length finish is filled with creamy vanilla and liquerish.

Scoring me an 7,5 out of 10. It grows on you with every sip even when it shows notes of being young on one side but shows promise for sure. Lets have a look at the Sherry Wood what the differences are between them.

The nose on this one shows some of the earthy notes like on the Bourbon Wood. But it is more creamy and marzipan together with sweet forrest fruits, oranges, coffee, salty, rubber and enhanced feeling of the leather note also found earlier on the other nose. Can feel the similarities but this one seems to be more balanced maybe?

The palate also has these notes clearly on it. Sweet, fruity, spices, crème brulee, marzipan, raisin, clover honey and honeysuckle. The medium length finish has a mixture of these soft vanilla and honey notes combined with some liquerish and almonds. Score 7,5 out of 10. I have not tried others of the WIP Sherry Wood range but I would say 9 years is very pleasing.