The hotly anticipated Loch Gorm is once again ready for its annual release.  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.

This, the 2021 edition, is a vatting of 24 oloroso sherry butts filled in 2011 and 2012.  These large 500 litre sherry butts have been sourced from Bodega Miguel Martin in Spain and filled with Kilchoman spirit peated to 50ppm.  Once these casks had been matured for a minimum of 9 years, they were then vatted together and bottled at 46% abv, resulting in 17,000 bottles being made available to Kilchoman fans around the world.

“Although we have always filled the bulk of our spirit into ex-bourbon barrels, the Loch Gorm releases have shown how well our peated Islay spirit can combine with sherry casks, something that’s not always an easy task.”

“Rich bold flavours with a breadth, depth and balance of character that sets it apart, the 2021 edition is packed with juicy fruit, macerated lemon and sweet chargrilled BBQ smoke,” Anthony Wills, Kilchoman Founder and Master Distiller.

Loch Gorm 2021 will be available from your regular Kilchoman stockists around the world from this week.  Please get in contact with us if you have any questions about finding a bottle near you.

We are often asked about the meaning of the names given to some of our core range expressions.

Our first continual release was launched back in 2012 and it seemed obvious to name it after the beautiful nearby beach– Machir Bay.

Machir Bay is located on the west coast of Islay, just along the road from the distillery.  The northern and southern parts are largely rocky, with a sandy beach area near the top of the bay.  The area surrounding Machir Bay is sparsely populated today, but archaeological evidence shows a long history of human settling in the parish of Kilchoman.

Machir Bay is a beach that is equally as stunning on a stormy day in the middle of winter as it is on a warm, sunny day in summer.  With almost two kilometres of beautiful sandy beach, impressive waves, a fresh sea breeze and stunning sunsets, it is easy to see why it is such a popular place with both local residents and visitors to the island all year round.

Named after this spectacular beach, our award winning Machir Bay is the flagship of the Kilchoman Range.  It has a vatting of approximately 90% bourbon barrels and 10% oloroso sherry casks.

“The dramatic coastal landscape of Machir Bay is reflected in the rugged complexity of this award winning single malt, the flagship of the Kilchoman range,”

Anthony Wills, Kilchoman Founder.

Sanaig, the second continual release which was launched in 2014, is named after a rugged coastal inlet north of the distillery.

The west coast of Islay, from Portnahaven to Sanaigmore, is regularly battered by strong Atlantic storms.  These high winds and rough seas have carved into the coastline to dramatic effect, none more so than at Sanaigmore, the north-western tip which is where our Sanaig release has gained its name. With clear waters and white sands Sanaigmore is a beautiful place to visit. With stunning views from the clifftops you can see Loch Gruinart, the hills in the north east of Islay and the Paps of Jura in the far distance. On a very clear day you can even see as far as the islands of Mull and Colonsay.

This predominantly sherry cask matured scotch whisky consists of approximately 70% oloroso hogsheads and 30% bourbon barrels, imparting a balance of dried fruits, dark chocolate and rich peat smoke into the spirit.

“Sanaig neatly balances the contrasting influences of rich sherry maturation, bourbon barrel finesse and Islay peat smoke,”

Anthony Wills, Kilchoman Founder.

Overlooked by the distillery, Loch Gorm is situated less than a mile from the Atlantic coast, roughly between Machir Bay in the south and Saligo Bay in the west. With a four mile circumference, it is Islay’s biggest freshwater loch with an abundance of wildlife and dark peat coloured waters.  The Allt Gleann Osamail burn, from which we collect our production water, is one of the loch’s major tributaries.  Loch Gorm also has a very interesting history.  An example of this is the small island in the south-east called Eilean Mor.  There are overgrown remains of a castle which dates back to the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

Named after this famously dark and peaty loch, Loch Gorm is a sherry cask single malt matured exclusively in oloroso casks, extracting the rich spicy character of the European oak as it ages in our Islay warehouse.  These ex-oloroso sherry casks impart a combination of heavy sherry notes, spicy dark chocolate, rich fruits and burnt sugar. This balances beautifully with the Kilchoman peat smoke.  Limited editions of Loch Gorm are launched annually.

“The Oloroso sherry maturation of Loch Gorm gives it a beautiful balance of big rich sherry flavours which pair very nicely with the peat smoke, soft fruits and typical sweetness of Kilchoman,”

Anthony Wills, Kilchoman Founder.

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.