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Black Bull Kyloe

malty fresh
3.6
(1)€25Scotland, Blended Malt

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Facts

Kyloes are the hardy Highland cattle that shrug off Scottish winters. One of them glares out from this label. The name fits the whisky. Where most blends lean on grain, this one uses roughly equal parts malt and grain. The malt comes from the Highlands and Speyside. That balance shows up as body. Vanilla and sweet oak arrive first. Then comes cooked cereal, a bite of green apple, a faint floral lift. Nothing is chill filtered away, and a medicinal edge lingers at the end. Pour it neat and the malt does the talking.

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About the distillery

Distillery

Black Bull

In 1864, a Dundee grocer named George Willsher registered Black Bull in Scotland. He set an unusually high malt content, a bold move for a blend of that era. Duncan Taylor, an independent bottler based in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, later took over the brand. Euan Shand, who bought Duncan Taylor in 2001, relaunched Black Bull in 2009. He kept faith with Willsher's original formula. Many expressions blend equal parts malt and grain whisky, a 50-50 ratio far richer in malt than most blends. Several are bottled at 50% abv without chill filtration. Black Bull has no distillery of its own. It is a blend, made from malt and grain whisky matured and married at Duncan Taylor's Huntly base. The company has long planned to change that. It has worked since 2007 towards building its own distillery on the site of a derelict mill in the town.

4.1Average rating

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About the Black Bull Kyloe

Black Bull Kyloe is a blended Scotch whisky bottled at 50% ABV. The Black Bull name has appeared on bottles in Scotland since the 1860s. Kyloe sits at the entry point of the range and carries no age statement. It is not chill filtered, and no colouring is added. The recipe pools malt and grain whisky in roughly equal measure. Very few standard blends contain that much malt. Duncan Taylor, an independent bottler, has owned the brand since the 1990s. The malt and grain come from distilleries across the Highlands and Speyside. That equal split is the point of the recipe. Grain whisky is lighter and cheaper, so most blenders lean on it heavily. Here the malt carries the weight instead. Maturation happens mainly in ex-bourbon casks, with a small share of ex-sherry wood. The brand also found a big audience in America after Prohibition. Vanilla leads the nose, sweet and soft, with light oak behind it. Give it a moment and a bready, malty note drifts up. Savoury flavours take over once you taste it, cooked cereal and warm bread crust. Green apple cuts through them. A floral thread runs alongside the sweetness. Wood and dry spice build as it fades. It closes short, with a faintly medicinal touch. The alcohol is plain to feel at this strength. The rest of the Black Bull range climbs through age statements, from eight years up to forty. A peated edition sits alongside them. Black Bull Kyloe skips the age statement and keeps the original unpeated style. Your money buys strength and malt content here, not years in a cask. That makes it the plainest look at the recipe itself. Anyone curious about how much malt a blend can hold should start here.