Kilchoman does not use Cognac casks for a few months of finishing: it leaves the whisky in them for the whole maturation. That is the idea behind the returning Cognac Cask Matured, 2026 edition, the second after the 2023 debut. It is whisky distilled in 2019, matured in 33 first-fill barriques and bottled at 50%, and has been on sale since the week of 7 September 2026 at around £70. After the Maury Cask Matured in March, it is the second release in the series the distillery calls “Not A Finish”.
Release details
Cognac Cask Matured 2026 carries no age statement, but the 2019 distillation puts it at six to seven years old. It is non-chill-filtered and without added colour. On the distillery website it is listed at £58.25, the price net of VAT for shipments outside the UK: for a British buyer that comes to about £70, the same price the Maury carried at launch. The outturn has not been disclosed. No Italian retailer lists it as of 9 September 2026; for the Maury the European reference price was around €80.
Maturation and casks
Barriques are French oak casks of 250 to 300 litres, the size used in Cognac and Bordeaux: small, with a lot of wood in contact with the spirit. Filled first-fill with new make rather than with mature whisky, they give up a lot of flavour, and quickly. Anthony Wills, Kilchoman’s founder, says full-term maturation in first-fill experimental casks is risky: they work to their own timeline, and if the whisky sits too long the Cognac overwhelms the spirit. The distillery bottles when the balance is right. The official notes list stone fruit, honeycomb, toasted nuts and warming spices, with the peat smoke and citrus that are the house signature.
The Not A Finish series
The Maury Cask Matured, released in March 2026, was the first step: full-term maturation in casks that held Maury, the fortified wine of Roussillon, with a dark, rich profile. Set against the Maury, Kilchoman describes the Cognac Cask Matured as the bright counterpoint and adds pear, apple, crystallised ginger and baking spices. The first Cognac edition, in 2023, used 32 casks with at least six years of maturation and cost £85: the new one has one more cask and a lower price.
For anyone who has already tasted the Maury: same spirit, same strength, same full-term logic, and two casks pulling in opposite directions. Italy will have to wait for the distributors: the Maury reached European shops within a few weeks, so expect a similar price here, around €80.
