We are delighted to share the news that Machir Bay and Sanaig have both been awarded gold medals in the International Spirits Challenge 2022.

Named after the stunning beach next to the distillery, Machir Bay is a vatting of Kilchoman matured in approximately 90% bourbon barrels and 10% oloroso sherry. The high proportion of bourbon barrels creates a distinct balance of classic Islay character and fresh floral complexity.

Sanaig, named after an inlet on Islay’s rugged Atlantic coast, is a vatting of Kilchoman matured in both sherry and bourbon barrels. This sherry cask scotch whisky is matured in a high proportion of oloroso barrels, imparting a balance of dried fruits, dark chocolate and rich peat smoke into the spirit.

Machir Bay and Sanaig are both part of our core range and are available throughout the world.

Click here for more information about where you can find our whiskies.

This annual limited edition is one that many of you have been eagerly awaiting. The vatting has been completed and bottles will be hitting shelves around the world any day now.

Named after Islay’s largest freshwater loch neighbouring the distillery, Loch Gorm is the only annual limited edition matured entirely in oloroso sherry casks.  Year on year the vatting of Loch Gorm subtly changes (and sometimes not so subtly), in age, colour and character.

Loch Gorm 2022 Edition was matured in oloroso sherry butts previously used by Bodega José y Miguel Martín for a minimum of eight years.  The 22 casks selected are a combination of 20 fresh and 2 refill casks.  The sherry soaked oak adds layers of rich fruity character which balance beautifully with the classic Kilchoman peat smoke and citrus flavours.

“Having selected casks that range in age from eight to fourteen years old, this year’s vatting combines both the youngest and oldest casks we’ve selected for recent editions of Loch Gorm. The freshness of the eight year old casks combined with the layered complexity of the older casks gives it a fantastic balance of rich, fruity oloroso influence which pairs beautifully with the citrus sweetness and peat smoke of Kilchoman,” Anthony Wills, Kilchoman Founder.

Loch Gorm 2022 will be available from your regular Kilchoman stockists around the world from this week.
For more information email info@kilchomandistillery.com

Click here to become a Kilchoman Club Member and be one of the first to hear about all our future releases and other news from the distillery.

What does the term ‘vatting’ mean?

We use the term ‘vatting’ to describe the process of combining whisky from different casks to form the final product. These selected casks can be a combination of different cask types, for example our Machir Bay is a vatting of bourbon and oloroso sherry casks.  They can also be of varying ages, for example in our Loch Gorm releases all the casks are oloroso sherry butts but they vary in age.  Different casks impart flavours into the whisky in different ways, and so distilleries combine whisky from various casks together to find a balance of flavours to form their single malt releases.

How is vatting different from blending?

Vatting differs from the term ‘blending’ because the various casks selected for vatting are all from the same distillery whereas ‘blending’ is more commonly used to describe the combination of casks from more than one distillery.

So how does the master distiller select casks for a vatting?

Anthony Wills, Kilchoman Founder & MD explains the process of vatting casks for Loch Gorm, one of our annual limited-edition releases.

Every year when we select the casks for the Loch Gorm release the first thing we do is select the age profile that we want and research the casks that we have available in the warehouse.  We have limited stock available, particularly from the earlier years when we were producing less spirit annually, we must be selective in the casks we choose to ensure we manage our stock profile.  We need to make sure we reserve casks for older vattings or bottlings so it’s about getting that balance right between using older casks while also preserving stock for later releases.  At the moment we don’t have huge stocks in the warehouse so we can’t just go in and select whatever we want, we have to be quite creative.  Luckily we are very creative!

Thinking ahead to the number of bottles we want to release, we will work out how many casks are needed.  One barrel equates to roughly 250 bottles.  If there are 20 casks required we will go into the warehouses and sample around 50 – 60 casks.  These will slowly be narrowed down to 20-25 casks, each with particular flavours that will combine to achieve the best depth and balance of flavour.  We then do a ‘test vatting’.  If we’re happy with how that has worked we will go ahead with combining the casks. If the test vatting isn’t quite where we want it to be then we will look at substituting or adding different casks.  If we want more intense flavours we might choose fresh rather than refill casks, if we are looking for more depth then we might select some older casks. This is where the skill and experience of the master distiller comes in.

Once the final recipe of casks have been selected, they are decanted into the vatting tanks and the whisky is rummaged (mixed using jets of air) at the full strength (53-59% abv).  We then take a reading to calculate how much water we need to add in order to reduce the ABV to within 1-2% abv of the bottling strength; typically 46%.  The water, drawn from a spring at the base of the Cnoc Dubh hill is then added and the process is repeated for a second time to hit the exact ABV required ahead of botting.

360° Video Tour inside the warehouse

Click here to join Anthony inside one of our dunnage warehouses where he will give you his founder’s take on cask maturation and discover how he created our unique Kilchoman range of whiskies.  With the moving 360° cameras you can have a look around and see what casks may be lurking in the dark corners of the warehouse!

Fèis Ìle is back!  After two years of being restricted to online events, we are delighted to be gearing up to welcome you back to Kilchoman in person for Fèis Ìle 2022.  We’re sure this will be our best festival day ever!

We have been busy selecting a range of special drams and cask samples for the masterclasses as well as planning various tours, activities, live music and entertainment which will take place throughout the day.  And of course, there will be our Fèis Ìle 2022 release which will be available from the distillery shop only (limited to one bottle per person).  £150 per bottle (70cl), approx. 900 bottles.

To celebrate welcoming visitors back to Islay for Fèis Ìle 2022 Anthony Wills, Kilchoman Founder, has selected some very special casks.  The 2022 Fèis Ìle is a combination of 5 first fill bourbon barrels filled in 2006, making this a 16-year-old release!   With just 7 casks filled in 2005, these represent some of the earliest casks ever filled at Kilchoman.

Kilchoman Fèis Ìle Day is Thursday 2^nd June 2022.  All the Masterclasses and a selection of events and tours can be booked in advance, click here for full details and availability.

MASTERCLASS EVENTS

• 10:30 – Founder’s Cask Tasting with Anthony Wills (Open to Club Members only, sign up here)
• 12:00 – Barley Varieties Exploration Tasting with Peter Wills & Robin Bignal
• 13:30 – Live Online Tasting with Anthony & James Wills – Tasting Packs are available to purchase from the distillery and online shop (click here)
• 13:30 – Archive Fèis Ìle Releases with Peter Wills & Antea Allegro
• 15:00 – Comraich Tasting with James Wills and Catherine MacMillan

BOOKABLE EVENTS

• Be A Bottler – 9:30, 11:00, 12:30, 14:00, 15:30 (includes a personalised bottle of a Distillery Exclusive Single Cask).
• Islay’s Farm Tour – 10:00, 12:30, 15:00 – Islay Heads, General Manager, will take you on a guided tour around the farm and local area, sampling a few drams along the way!
• Range Tastings – 11:00. 12:00, 15:00 (Tickets can be purchased on the day at The Bar)

EXPLORE

All our major production areas will be open and operational throughout the day so it’s a great chance to see it all in action and chat to the experts that work at each stage, these include;

• Still House – chat with the still house team, take a look at our stills in action and try some new make which was distilled from different barley varieties.
• Malt Floor – discover the ancient art of traditional floor malting, try turning the malt yourself and enjoy a dram of 100% Islay on us.
• Warehouse – explore one of our traditional dunnage warehouses, take a picture with Cask No.1 and enjoy a nip of Machir Bay.
• Barley Fields – stop off at the Stone Cottage Field (first on your left after the Kilchoman sign at the end of the drive) where we’ve sown our two barley varieties, Sassy and Planet, side by side.

EATING, DRINKING, DANCING & SHOPPING

• The Whisky Bar will be serving endless supplies of Kilchoman limited editions, Comraich batches and cask samples.
• Cocktail Bar – our friends from The Malt Room Bar in Inverness have created a range of mixed drinks which will be available from the bar throughout the day, so fingers crossed for cocktail weather!
• There will also be two bands playing throughout the day in the Music Marquee, local meats served from the BBQ, light bites from the Salad Bar, cakes and coffees from the Café and all the branded gear you could ever want from the Gift Shop.

WHISKY SHOP
The whisky shop will be open from 10am stocking all our recent Limited Editions, the latest Distillery Shop Exclusive Single Casks and of course our very special Fèis Ìle 2022 bottling.

Great news… Machir Bay and 100% Islay have both been awarded Gold Medals in The IWSC 2022 competition!

Machir Bay, which scored 98 points and was awarded ‘Gold Outstanding’, is part of our core range and is available throughout the world.  Named after the stunning beach next to the distillery, Machir Bay is a vatting of Kilchoman matured in approximately 90% bourbon barrels and 10% oloroso sherry. The high proportion of bourbon barrels creates a distinct balance of classic Islay character and fresh floral complexity.

100% Islay was also awarded a “Gold Award’ and scored 95 points.  100% Islay, our flagship release, is Islay’s only Single Farm Single Malt Scotch Whisky.  It represents the revival of traditional farm distilling; growing our own barley before malting, distilling, maturing and bottling every bottle of our 100% Islay range on site.

Have you tasted these award-winning whiskies yet?

Click here for more information about our whiskies.