Join us for another ‘Live Tasting’ on Thursday 8th April at 7pm Islay Time.

Taste along with your Kilchoman Tasting Glass as we take you through two of our Core Range whiskies and two 2021 Pre-Release samples, explaining how we make each whisky and what unique character and flavours can be found in each dram. Click here to order your whisky tasting packs from our online shop.  (*Please note the image isn’t the exact whiskies in the pack).

Machir Bay – 46% (20ml) – Our signature peated single malt is a vatting of Kilchoman matured in a high proportion of bourbon casks with a small sherry cask influence.

Sanaig – 46% (20ml) – Although also matured in both sherry and bourbon casks, Sanaig has a high proportion of oloroso influence, giving a vastly different character to the whisky.

PX Sherry Matured – 47.3% (20ml) – This limited edition is a vatting of 33 casks, 9 fully matured in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks and 24 finished in PX casks for between 12 and 18 months.

Ruby Port Single Cask Finish – 55.1% (20ml) – This single cask has been matured in a fresh Bourbon Barrel for over six years before being finished in a Ruby Port quarter cask for a year.

Why not pair your drams with some delicious chocolate?  Two of the COCO chocolate bars that we paired with our core range whiskies at the end of last year are now available to order from our online shop.  The Atlantic sea salt and lime milk chocolate pairs perfectly with our Machir Bay whisky and the spiciness from the nutmeg, allspice and cloves of the Haggis dark chocolate bar works beautifully with the sherry cask influence of Sanaig.

Even if you don’t manage to get a tasting pack, please still pour yourself a dram, join us and interact with the guys in the comments section during the tasting.  Feel free to also ask any and all questions you want!  We will be live on our Facebook page and Youtube Channel.

At Kilchoman we mature all our casks in traditional dunnage warehouses here on the west coast of Islay.  Not only is the type of warehouse important to the character of a whisky but also the location, with each cask absorbing all the microclimatic differences Islay has to offer.

There are three main methods used for maturing casks in warehouses, and some distilleries use more than one.  The traditional method of ‘dunnage’ and then the more modern trend of ‘racked’ and ‘palletised’ warehousing.

Dunnage – Dunnage warehouses are the traditional warehouse, low in height with thick walls and an earthen floor.  Inside, casks are stacked on their sides, no more than three barrels high in stows (rows) which helps to ensure good air circulation and an even maturation throughout.  The earthen floor means a dunnage warehouse is naturally humid with minimal seasonal weather variance in Scotland, the climate inside the warehouse remains constant over daily and yearly cycles.  This high humidity and constant temperature results in all casks across the warehouse maturing at a consistent rate, being influenced by the humid conditions created by the surrounding soil.

However, dunnage warehouses are expensive to run, the earthen floor and low ceiling, although benefits to a maturing cask, result in higher costs as machines (such as forklifts) cannot be used.  So, much like all other aspects of whisky-making life at Kilchoman, cask management is labour-intensive and must be done by hand.

Racked & Palletised – In a racked warehouse, casks will be found stacked on their sides in steel frames, sometimes 12 or more high, while a palletised warehouse has casks stacked on their ends on pallets, often 6 or 8 layers high. The more modern racked and palletised warehouses came to prominence when distilleries expanded in size and the traditional onsite dunnage warehouses could no longer handle the number of casks being produced.  Contrary to Dunnage, these warehouses are a lot taller, allowing for more barrels to be stacked on top of each other and have a concrete floor throughout.  An obvious advantage to using this type of warehousing is the large number of casks that can be stored inside and the relative ease to access these casks. Forklifts and other machines can freely roam and manage the maturing whisky, an accountant’s dream compared to the labour-intensive dunnage warehouses.

Inside a racked or palletised warehouse there is a relatively lower humidity due to the concrete floors and a more seasonal change in temperature over the months and years of maturation.  The lower casks will be cooler and more humid, more like that of a dunnage warehouse, the upper casks will be hotter with a lower humidity, leading to greater evaporation loss of water.  This variation in conditions throughout the warehouse can mean maturation becomes more inconsistent and unpredictable across the warehouse.

As well as the type of warehouse, the location of where it is situated is also an influencing factor.  Whether it be the amount of wind, sun, rain or snow, the local climate can form an important part of cask maturation.  For example, a dunnage warehouse taking up the moisture in the ground from water-soaked soil or a racked/palletised warehouse heating up due to the sun beating down on its roof (not always a problem in some parts of Scotland).

There are many variables throughout the whisky-making process and it is often difficult to say for sure what is the ‘best’ or ‘right’ way, something which makes whisky so fascinating.  However, at Kilchoman we like to stick with tradition and mature in dunnage warehouses on Islay, as distillers would have hundreds of years ago.  It might mean a little more hard graft for the team manoeuvring each cask by hand, but the cool humid temperature and consistent long term maturation in our dunnage warehouses help make Kilchoman single malt taste the way it does today.

Throughout 2020 we hosted various online live whisky tastings where people from around the world had the opportunity to order tasting packs so they could get the full tasting experience from the comfort of their own home.  The live events included pairing the core range whiskies with a variety of fantastic foods from other Scottish producers.  Participants were able to order the food tasting packs as well as the whiskies to get the full tasting experience.  From highland venison to island cheese and west coast seafood, these tastings proved to be popular with both whisky beginners and connoisseurs alike.  The final food pairing had a slightly more international feel through a collaboration with Edinburgh based company COCO chocolatier who work with cacao farmers across Colombia.

Following on from the success of this, we now have two of the chocolate varieties in branded packaging to pair with the well-known expressions – Machir Bay and Sanaig.

Machir Bay is a vatting of Kilchoman matured in a high proportion of bourbon barrels which creates a distinct balance of Islay character and fresh floral complexity.  The fresh lime flavour and the sweetness from the chocolate balances very well with the citrus, fresh fruits and vanilla character of Machir Bay.

Sanaig is matured in a high proportion of oloroso sherry hogsheads which imparts a balance of rich, dried fruits and peat smoke.  The spiciness from the nutmeg, allspice and cloves works beautifully with the sherry cask influence of Sanaig.

The whisky and chocolate can both be ordered from our website by clicking here

Join us for another ‘Live Tasting’ on Thursday 18th February at 7pm Islay time.

Taste along with your Kilchoman Tasting Glass as we take you through two of our Core Range whiskies and two 2021 Pre-Release samples, explaining how we make each whisky and what unique character and flavours can be found in each dram. You can order your whisky tasting packs from our online shop – click here

Machir Bay – 46% (20ml) – Our signature peated single malt is a vatting of Kilchoman matured in a high proportion of bourbon casks with a small sherry cask influence.

Sanaig – 46% (20ml) – Although also matured in both sherry and bourbon casks, Sanaig has a high proportion of oloroso influence, giving a vastly different character to the whisky.

Loch Gorm 2021 – 46% (20ml) Loch Gorm is our annual limited edition matured entirely in sherry casks. The 2021 edition (due for release in March) is a vatting of 24 oloroso sherry butts filled in 2011 and 2012.

Comraich Batch 4 – 55% (20ml) This range is exclusively available through our Kilchoman Comraich bars. We have partnered with some of the best whisky bars around the world, offering a wide range of Kilchoman single malts. Click here to learn more about the Kilchoman Comraich and find your nearest bar.

Why not pair your drams with some delicious chocolate?  Two of the COCO chocolate bars that we paired with our core range whiskies at the end of last year are now available to order from our online shop.  The Atlantic sea salt and lime milk chocolate pairs perfectly with our Machir Bay whisky and the spiciness from the nutmeg, allspice and cloves of the Haggis dark chocolate bar works beautifully with the sherry cask influence of Sanaig.

Our fourth and final limited edition of the year, the Fino Sherry Matured, will be available worldwide from this week.

The second of our Autumn releases comes in the form of a Fino Sherry Matured limited edition, our first global release of this cask type. The whisky has spent its full maturation in fino casks previously used by Bodega Miguel Martin in Spain, 11 fresh butts and 1 refill butt.

This release follows on from other limited-edition expressions using experimental cask maturations from Kilchoman, full term maturations in port, madeira, sauternes, red wine and STR cask types, amongst others. This particular release is limited to just 10,500 bottles worldwide.

Our core range of whiskies include oloroso sherry in their maturation, a medium-dry style of sherry which gives our whiskies a range of cooked and dried fruit influence. Fino differs from this by being a drier, more saline type of sherry which gives Kilchoman whisky layers of fragrant green apple, balancing beautifully with the citrus sweetness, cooked fruits and maritime peat smoke of our spirit.

“We have previously bottled a fino sherry matured release for our Kilchoman Club members but this will be a first global release. It’s exciting to have a new cask type available for the Kilchoman followers to taste. The fresh green apple character certainly adds a new element compared to what we’ve released before”

The Fino Sherry Matured is available from your regular Kilchoman stockist now. If it isn’t there yet, then it will be soon! Please get in contact with us if you have any questions about finding a bottle near you. A limited number of bottles will also be released via our website shop on Wednesday 14th at 2pm UK time (limited to one bottle per person) £74.52.

September 2020 marks the release of our 10th annual edition of our 100% Islay range. The unique Single Farm Single Malt is the only whisky in Scotland to be produced entirely on one farm, from barley to bottle.

We spoke to Anthony Wills, Kilchoman Founder and Managing Director, to find out more about the latest limited edition release and why it is so special.

What makes the 100% Islay release so special?

What makes the 100% Islay release so special to the distillery is that we do the whole process here on the farm.  We grow the barley in the fields surrounding the distillery then we malt, distil, mature and finally bottle it all on site.  We are the only distillery producing whisky that does the whole process on site and we’re very proud of that.  It is special because we are looking after every process right the way through to you enjoying it when you raise a glass.  It is one of the main reasons for starting the distillery, we could have a unique selling point and 100% Islay embraces that completely. 

Tell us about this year’s release

We release the 100% Islay on an annual basis and this is the 10^th edition.  It is older than previous releases at nine years of age.  This is the second time we’ve used a bit of oloroso sherry cask maturation in the vatting.  In the past most of them have been 100% matured in first fill bourbon casks but we have filled oloroso sherry casks on an annual basis for the 100% Islay and this year you will see the colour is richer and darker and there is a little more weight and body on the palate.  I am delighted with it, it has worked really well and it still has all that lovely zesty vibrancy with a little bit of weight from the sherry casks that we’ve used. 

Which barley varieties were used in the 2020 release?

The barley varieties used in this edition, the 10^th edition, are now printed on the packaging.  In this edition we used the varieties Optic & Publican.  These were two varieties that were used throughout the industry in those years – 2009, 2008 & 2007.  I am a great believer that barley varieties do play a part in  the character of the spirit and we’ve done a few experiments here and I’ve been talking about how important and how different the barley varieties can be at the spirit stage.  But I think it is important to also realise that once the spirit goes into casks and matures for five, ten, fifteen years, those differences narrow right down.  It’s great to talk about it but I think it is difficult to really start arguing that case once you have it in bottle.   We’ve done various experiments here over the last few years and we’ve sown different varieties and distilled them separately and will release them separately and it’s all part of our programme of experimentation.

Would you consider a higher PPM or no peating in the 100% Islay release?

The average PPM of our 100% Islay releases tends to be between 15 to 20ppm.  We are starting to be able to experiment a little bit more with our peating levels with our 100% Islay barley and that is because of the new still house being completed about 14 months ago.  It will allow us to distil completely separately and now the guys are on site five days a week, 24 hours a day, so it therefore allows us to do longer peatings.  We’ve already done an unpeated variety.  For two months we did an unpeated 100% Islay barley and we look forward to seeing how that performs in a few years time.  We’re also going to do longer peating, so maybe 48 hours or more to see what we can do with that and how that will influence the character of the 100% Islay release.

Can you give an overview of your tasting notes?

It is beautifully rich in colour and that is the influence from the sherry casks.  It has lovely light, vibrant, citrus notes.  And then on the back of the palate the peat and smoke come through but on a very light basis.  It doesn’t have the same strength of peat as our other releases and at 50% abv it’s great without water.

How is this year’s harvest going?

The harvest this year has been a bit disrupted by the weather unfortunately.  It was all looking great a few weeks ago.  We’ve had pretty good weather actually throughout the summer and the barley was ripening really well and we thought we could go to harvest reasonably early, earlier than we normally do.  We actually started on Monday the 31^st August but we only got four or five hours before the rain came and the weather has been very unsettled ever since.  It’s looking a bit better for next week so hopefully we can get back to it because if we can’t then it’s going to be a bit of a struggle to get the barley off in good quality and to get the yields that we are looking for. At the moment the barley grains are looking really ripe and plump but if this rain continues then the quality will dip somewhat. 

Have they finally let you drive the combine?

Well I’ve always been asked if I’ve driven the combine and I always tell everyone that I’m going to drive the combine but Andrew manages to keep it quiet when he goes and does the harvest but I’ve said it’s a piece of cake, it’s not as complicated as everyone makes out.  It’s just like mowing the lawn, drive it in a straight line, keep within the tram lines and away you go!  So hopefully I will get a go at it next week when we get going and that will probably annoy Andrew!

100% Islay, Single Farm Single Malt

Our latest 100% Islay limited edition will be available worldwide from this week. The unique Single Farm Single Malt is the only whisky in Scotland to be produced entirely on one farm, from barley to bottle.

Distilled from Optic and Publican barley varieties grown at Kilchoman in 2007, 2009 and 2010, the barley was then malted onsite and peated using local Islay peat before being distilled, matured and eventually bottled all within the farm distillery’s limits.

This, the 10th annual edition of the range was matured in a combination of 39 bourbon barrels and 2 oloroso sherry butts for a minimum of 9 years. Just 12,400 bottles will be released with each cask personally selected for the release by distillery founder, Anthony Wills.

“Our 100% Islay whiskies are special, they both reflect the traditions of Scotch whisky production and examine the increasing interest in the detail of how single malt is made. 

With our 100% Islay range we control every element of the whisky-making process ourselves, from barley variety through to individual casks selected for bottling.  It means we are able to adapt our methods and inputs to maximise the character of the whisky in the glass.

The Optic and Publican varieties used for the 10^th Edition, paired with a light peat smoking, long fermentation and high spirit cut creates a bright, floral nose of citrus sweetness that gives way to prunes, cinnamon and cooked apples & pears on the palate. The finish brings waves of mildly spiced peat smoke, lasting sweetness and rich sherry notes”

The 100% Islay 10th Edition will retail for £71.94 in the UK (70cl, 50% abv), a limited number of bottles will be available via our website from 2pm on Wednesday 16th, however these will be restricted to one bottle per person.

If you miss out on a bottle when they’re released on our website then don’t worry, bottles will be on shelves around the world soon.

More great news and another gold award! Machir Bay has won a gold award in the ‘2020 Whiskies of the World Awards’.

The ‘Whiskies of the World Awards’ is a worldwide whisky competition produced in conjunction with the International Wine & Spirits Competition, the largest, most prestigious and longest running spirits competition in the world.

Machir Bay is part of our core range and 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 create a distinct balance of classic Islay character and fresh floral complexity.

For more information about Machir Bay click here

Great news! Our Sanaig was voted ‘Best Islay Whisky’ in the Ultimate Spirits Challenge 2020 scoring an impressive 97 points!

Sanaig, named after an inlet on Islay’s rugged Atlantic cost, is a vatting of Kilchoman matured in both sherry and bourbon barrels.

Judge’s Tasting Notes for Sanaig: Roasted fig, cedar smoke and chocolate are full and rich aromas. The plush texture balances the intense campfire smoke with flavors of berries, smoked meats and oats. Impressively smooth throughout, nutty toffee and smoked cacao round out the finish.

Machir Bay was also a finalist scoring 95 points.  This release is our signature peated single malt and is a vatting of Kilchoman matured in both bourbon and sherry casks. 

“We are delighted to be voted ‘Best Islay Whisky’ in the Ultimate Spirits Challenge 2020. It recognises the dedication and hard work of the team at the distillery.” Anthony Wills, Kilchoman Founder & Managing Director.

Click here to find out more about our whiskies.

To read more information about the Ultimate Spirits Challenge 2020, click here.