Barley Sowing 2018

With the recent dry and warm weather we have been having on Islay the guys have been able to get out on the farm to sow our barley. This barley will then be harvested at the end of the summer before its malted, distilled and filled into casks sometime next year

This year we have planted a total of 97.5 acres. After an unsuccessful trial of a new barley variety called Laureate last year, we have reverted back to two tried and tested varieties, planting 77.5 acres of Concerto and 20 acres of Octavian. Though most years we grow multiple varieties, in the past all fields have been harvested and malted together. This year however we have plans to malt, distil and mature each variety separately, meaning we will be able to analyse the impact of barley variety on the character of our spirit. We have always been interested to analyse the impact of variety on flavour and new space and equipment finally mean that by 2022 we will be able to release single barley variety Kilchoman single malt. Exciting times!

With the mixed weather that we have all been experiencing recently, Andrew Wood, who is responsible for all barley farming operation at Kilchoman had to work particularly hard to get the barley into the ground. The photo above is of Keith sowing our Ministers field with the beautiful Machir Bay in the background.
We would just like to thank Keith, Jim, Lewis, Mathew, Islay, Fraser, Hunter, John and Dunlossit Estate for all their help in getting the fields prepared and the barley sown.

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