This year marks a major milestone for Kilchoman: 20 years since we fired up the stills on our farm distillery in the west of Islay, becoming the first new distillery to be built on the island in over 120 years. Two decades later, we remain proudly independent, family run, and committed to doing things the traditional way, from barley to bottle, right here on Islay.
To celebrate, we are bringing Kilchoman to whisky lovers across Europe with a series of special events.
Join us for our UK edition on Saturday 15th November 2025 at Edinburgh Academy Senior School for an afternoon of Kilchoman whisky tasting hosted by the team behind the distillery. Whether you have followed us since the early days or recently discovered us through your latest dram, this is a chance to be part of the celebration.
What’s in Store:
- A guided tasting through our core range
- A selection of limited editions and archive bottlings
- Pours of our new make spirit
- An opportunity to sample our 20th Anniversary Cask Series
- The Kilchoman team pouring, chatting, and sharing stories throughout the afternoon
- Automatic entry into a raffle draw for the chance to win bottles of Kilchoman whisky
Tickets are priced at £30 and include access to all whiskies on pour. The event runs from 2pm to 5pm and is open to everyone aged 18 and over.
Let’s Raise a Dram Together!
It is not every day you turn 20, and we want to celebrate it properly, with the people who made it possible. Secure your place now:
This is just one of several Kilchoman Day events happening across Europe this autumn. Keep an eye out for announcements coming soon.
Planning a trip to Kilchoman this summer and would like to know what to expect? Whether you’re a seasoned Islay visitor or this is your first time, Kilchoman offers experiences catered for all interests, from stunning landscapes, a bite to eat or seeing the traditional methods we instil in producing our range of single malt. Here is everything you need to know.
Distillery Tours & Tastings
We offer a range of tours and tastings to suit everyone –
· Classic Tour: Led by one of our knowledgeable guides you will be taken on a one-hour tour throughout production, from our traditional malt floor to our dunnage warehouses. Includes two samples of our popular core whiskies.
· Limited Edition Tour & Tasting: For a more in-depth experience, this two-hour tour gets into the heart of the whisky making process, and includes a sit-down tutored tasting featuring four of our limited edition expressions.
· Roving Tasting: A sensory journey through the distillery highlighting the unique sights, sounds and smell that make Kilchoman one of a kind. Topped off with dram of one of our many whiskies as you explore thevarious areas of the distillery.
Whisky Bar, Shop & Café
The tasting bar is open from 10:00 AM to 4:45 PM, offering samples of Kilchoman’s full range, from our well-loved core-range releases, limited editions, distillery exclusives as well as some archive stock. One of our guides will be happy to answer any questions and talk you through our expressions. No booking is required, just come in and enjoy a dram!
Our shop offers all of our current releases, branded goods as well as some local crafted gifts to purchase to help make your trip to Kilchoman memorable.
The on-site café is open from 9:45 AM to 4:30 PM serving barista style coffee and fresh homemade baking. We also serve lunches from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM to give you the opportunity to try our infamous Cullen Skink!
All bookings for tours can be made through our website. If you would like further information or to book a table for lunch in our café – advisable to avoid disappointment, then please call the distillery on 01496 850 011 (option 1)
Whether you’re a whisky connoisseur or simply seeking a unique experience, Kilchoman offers a memorable day out. Don’t miss the opportunity to explore Islay’s only Farm Distillery.
Kilchoman Fèis Day 2025 is now less than two weeks away. Save the date – Thursday 29th May. Click here for more details on what’s happening throughout the day both at the distillery on virtually online.
Our 2025 Fèis Ìle Release
One of Anthony’s annual highlights is selecting something special for our exclusive Fèis Ìle release. This year, he has chosen two refill Madeira hogsheads, distilled in 2015 and bottled at natural cask strength.
This single farm, single malt whisky was produced using barley grown and malted at Kilchoman, and lightly peated to 20ppm.
“As usual, our Fèis Ìle release is only available to those who make the journey over to Islay, sold exclusively through the distillery shop. While searching for something a bit unusual to bottle, I came across several Madeira hogsheads that were filled with our 100% Islay spirit back in 2015.
We very rarely mature our 100% Islay spirit for its full maturation in anything other than ex-bourbon or sherry casks, so I was thrilled to find these unusual casks coming along so well. The lighter peating level allows for the bold Madeira notes to come through into the whisky,” Anthony Wills, Kilchoman Founder.
Fèis Ìle Online
If you can’t make it to Islay, don’t worry – we’ll be bringing a bit of the Fèis atmosphere to you virtually through our online content. We will also be sharing various footage from the distillery throughout the day.
Win a Fèis 2025 Bottle!
We’re giving our social media followers a chance to win a Fèis 2025 bottle! To enter, simply ‘LIKE’ our Facebook page or ‘FOLLOW’ us on Instagram. If you’re already following us, you’re automatically entered into the draw. On Friday 30th May, we’ll randomly select one lucky winner from Facebook and one from Instagram to each receive a bottle of this exclusive release. Good luck!
The final stage in the whisky-making process is bottling! At Kilchoman we are one of the few distilleries in Scotland that bottle all of our own whisky. Everything from Machir Bay, single casks, miniatures and gift packs are completed on site by our bottling team.
Many people are unaware that few distilleries bottle their own whisky on the site where it is made. It is easier, particularly for larger companies, to send all their whisky to a central location in Scotland to be bottled and distributed from there. Kilchoman is different, we were established with our barley to bottle philosophy in mind, using water from the Glen Osamail to reduce our whisky to their bottling strength. On-site bottling is integral to our ethos.
We currently ship our whisky to over 60 different countries all around the world, each with their own strict packaging rules and regulations. Just for our Machir Bay expression, there are around 15 different label variations for the bottling team to keep track of. Depending on the final destination of the whisky, they ensure that the countries specific guidelines are adhered to. Forgetting any little detail could result in entire orders having to be sent back to Islay and re-labelled, an expensive mistake!
As the bottling team are the last people who see the whisky before it reaches the shelves, they have to quality check every bottle – Does it have the iconic Kilchoman coin attached? Is it filled to the right level? Is the label straight and in the correct position? How does the whisky look in the bottle?
Life is made slightly easier with a few machines to help fill bottles and attach the labels, something we had to do by hand for many years! However, it isn’t all easy going, every Kilchoman coin is still stuck on by hand, the bottles packed into cartons by hand, and many single casks and small batches are still hand numbered.
Christmas has been kind to the bottling team and in 2025 we are hoping to install the new labelling machine that has arrived with a few extras!
With our current set-up and a full team on the line, we can bottle over 3,000 bottles of whisky in a day, which equates to 8 pallets. Currently the team consists of six members with Derek leading the way as bottling manager. Derek is also responsible for hand cutting all the peat we use in our kiln, so he’s a busy man! There are then a further five members of the team who have specific roles along the line, all required at full tilt when a big order comes in…
Once the bottles have been approved, they are packed into outer cases, loaded onto pallets, and wrapped up tight. We wish them good luck on the long journey around the world, hopefully arriving safely on the shelf of your local retailer.
It may not be the most talked about or glamorous role at a distillery but it certainly is a vital one!
Shake the Farm is back!
We are once again challenging bartenders across the UK to create a cocktail which showcases one of our core range whiskies alongside one farmed British ingredient.
The Theme
As Islay’s only farm distillery, Kilchoman embodies the spirit of the land, crafting whisky that celebrates local provenance and craftmanship. Inspired by our roots, we are proud to present this year’s ‘Shake the Farm’ cocktail competition, inviting bartenders across the UK to champion the connection between whisky and agriculture. The challenge is to create a cocktail that showcases one of our core range whiskies alongside a single standout ingredient farmed right here in Britain. Together, let’s shake things up while honouring the essence of farm-grown quality!
A set of easy rules:
- Cocktails must contain a minimum of 25ml of Kilchoman Machir Bay, Sanaig or Batch Strength.
- The recipe must contain one UK farmed ingredient.
- Creations must be easy to replicate and made using tools and ingredients commonly found in bars.
- Drinks must not contain more than 6 ingredients (excluding garnish).
- The use of homemade ingredients is greatly encouraged but not necessary.
- Entries must be submitted before 23rd March 2025 at midnight.
The Challenge
Application:
- Recipes must be submitted via our entry form.
- A picture of your cocktail must be shared on Instagram tagging @kilchomandistillery, @kilcho.man and your bar with the hashtags #shakethefarm #kilchomanwhisky #barleytobottle.
- The cocktail must be available within the candidate’s bar offering.
Selection:
Three finalists will be shortlisted based on their online submission and Instagram post. The following criteria will be used for the selection process:
- Drink’s name, story and visual appeal.
- Choice of farmed ingredient.
- Instagram post originality.
Finals:
The finalists will then be invited to an all-expenses paid hands-on apprenticeship at our distillery on Islay (April 21st – 24th). During these four days, they will stay on the farm, learn about distillery production and have a hand in making our single malt, finishing up by competing to become our 2025 Shake the Farm champion.
The winner will get a chance to select an exclusive single cask reserved to UK on-trade and take six bottles of it home with them. To top it up, the winning cocktail will be featured as our official Fèis Ìle 2025 libation.
ENTER NOW
Cask selection can make or break a whisky. You could make the best new make spirit in the world but deciding what casks you put it into will ultimately define the end result. At Kilchoman we take cask selection very seriously, sourcing casks from all around the world and making judgments as they mature to create the highest quality whisky we can.
First of all, it comes down to the type of wood. To legally be called whisky, all casks need to be made from oak wood that can be cut from trees around the world. The most common types of oak used in the scotch whisky industry are American oak (Quercus alba) and European oak (Quercus robur). How the spirt interacts with the wood itself plays a major role in the overall flavour.
American oak forms a closed grain (lots of thin layers of oak close together) and is fast growing. This is favoured by the whisky industry as it is better for liquid retention and there is a high availability of it making it easier to source. It will typically impart flavours of vanilla, coconut and tropical fruits
European oak is slow growing so has a more limited availability. It will generally give notes to the whisky of dried fruits and warm spices. At Kilchoman, our sherry casks are actually made with American oak instead of European oak. This is due to the fact that European oak is more porous, allowing less interaction to take place so will generally require a much longer maturation.
After deciding what type of oak we want to mature in, it then comes to selecting what the casks have been used for previously. The two most commonly used types of casks are ex-bourbon barrels and ex-oloroso sherry casks. However, we have experimented with everything from cognac, rum, tequila, mezcal and calvados. This produces a wide variety of additional flavour and allows us to make a more diverse range of whiskies but this comes with its own challenges, as some can be more difficult to work with making it harder to predict the outcome.
When it comes to selecting which cask types we use, the key word is balance. We don’t want to choose something that will overshadow Kilchoman’s unique spirit, but we also want to ensure we are getting enough influence that it adds flavour and creates harmony. Not all cask types will work for us as well as others, which is completely fine. It all comes down to discovering what showcases our whisky in the best light.
Now we wait. Despite going through the process with a fine-tooth comb to select what we feel will be the best casks for us, it all comes down to what happens while they are aging. As much as we would like to think we have total control when it comes to this, you cannot tell a cask how to mature and sometimes you can taste two casks from the same batch, and they can be entirely different from one another.
There is no right or wrong way to choose casks. It all comes down to the desired flavour the distillery is looking to achieve. What may work well for one may not work well for another. One of the wonderful things about whisky is that this means there is an unimaginable number of different flavours being created all over the world and with the amount of diversity in the industry means there truly is something out there for everyone to enjoy.
Back in October James Wills embarked on our biggest ever US tour, taking him from Boston MA to Orlando FL and stopping at infinite picturesque cities big and small along the way. He visited over 50 of our US retail partners and met close to 2,000 fans of Kilchoman. The 2024 tour followed successful tours in the mid-west as well as both the west and east coasts.
The focus of the events was our latest core range release, Batch Strength, particularly the Tour Edition featuring Rory, our Aberdeen Angus bull. 99.7% loved it, (some preferred one of our other releases), deepening affection for high strength Kilchoman with established Islay whisky lovers and converting those less partial to a peaty dram to our new ‘colossal’ core range expression. If you haven’t tried Batch Strength yet, then you should seek it out… your local stockist should have it on the shelves.
If we missed you on our latest tour then don’t worry, we’ll be back, we aren’t sure when or where yet, but if you have any suggestions then please get in touch.
The final leg of the Asia Batch Strength Tour took us to China and South Korea. My father and I arrived in China to take over from Catherine, who needed a well-earned break after 2 weeks travelling through South-East Asia. After a quick dram and a catch-up with Catherine, she flew home and we carried on the tour.
It was the first time Anthony had been to China for over 25 years, back in his independent bottling days, and safe to say plenty had changed. Beijing was the first of 9 cities on the tour, followed by Yanji, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Nanning, Kunming, Hefei, Suzhou and finally Shanghai.
We hosted a variety of events in bars and restaurants across the country. From the chilly temperatures in the north (where we sponsor the annual Ice Racing competition!) to the tropical south, the hospitality and welcome we received was incredible, making the jetlag and early flights more than worth the trouble!
There were plenty of bottles of Batch Strength to be signed as the tour edition was snapped up fast, ranking top of the pile in most of our tasting line-ups. Anthony was also introduced to the word ‘gānbēi’, slàinte in Scotland (with a twist), which resulted in many drams being consumed on tour.
The pin badges, Kilchoman tweed and Batch Strength t-shirts we brought with us were worn with pride at each event and a few lucky guests went home with some extra presents – who doesn’t like going home with some free whisky!
After finishing up the Chinese leg of the tour in Shanghai, I hopped on the short flight over to Korea for 3 days of events. First in Busan, somewhere I had never been before, and then on to Seoul.
We had a sold out tasting in Busan with over 70 people there to get a taste of our new core range whisky. To those who missed out, don’t worry, we are already planning our next trip back here for our 20th anniversary next year!
After one day in Busan it was then time to leave for the bright lights of Seoul. We hosted another packed out tasting event before it was time to visit one of the Kilchoman Comraich bars for an evening of drams in Aslung. There was core range, limited editions, single casks and a few surprise distillery exclusives all up for grabs behind the bar.
A packed few days of Korean barbeque and delicious whisky, not a bad combination to finish up the tour with! After 6 weeks, 9 regions and countless drams, it was time to wrap up the Asia Batch Strength Tour and head home… See you next time!
The wait is over – Sanaig Cask Strength is here!
We have launched a limited number of bottles of Sanaig Cask Strength for 2024. After the success of Machir Bay Cask Strength we thought it was time that everyone had a chance to taste Sanaig at its natural best as well! This vatting uses the same recipe as our regular Sanaig bottling however, rather than reducing the strength to 46% abv, we have released a limited number of bottles at cask strength; 57.8% abv.
Sanaig is a combination of both oloroso sherry hogshead finishes and fully matured casks. We source all our sherry casks from José y Miguel Martín and the consistency of these casks is really highlighted at the higher strength. Sanaig at cask strength has an incredible combination of rich peat smoke and sweet cooked fruits with a deep long lasting glutinous finish.
“Sanaig at cask strength has a fantastic balance of cooked fruits and richness from the oloroso sherry hogsheads with warming peat smoke. Since its addition to the core range in 2016 Sanaig has grown in popularity, and at its natural strength, it allows the nose and palate to shine even brighter,” Anthony Wills, Kilchoman Founder.
Sanaig Cask Strength (70cl, 57.8% vol.) will be available across Europe from this week. For those further away, it’s on the way, best to contact your local stockist to make sure they keep a bottle for you when it does arrive.
Contact us by email for more information – admin@kilchomandistillery.com
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