Join us for a live tasting on Thursday 27th August at 7pm UK time.
We’ve got an exciting new (and slightly geeky!) tasting pack, delving into our distillation process, focusing on the spirit run that is collected from our spirit still during the second distillation.
Distillery Founder Anthony Wills and Production Manager Robin Bignal will be giving you an insight into the inner workings of our still house, explaining the different flavours and aromas that are present as the spirit run changes and develops over time, from 5 minutes to 90 minutes. Known as the ‘heart of the run’, many have never tasted the huge difference in character between the start and end of the hearts. A limited number of tasting packs are available to order here. Head over to our social media channels and join us live on August 27th.
Tasting Pack –
5 mins – 74% (20ml)
25 mins – 72% (20ml)
45 mins – 69% (20ml)
90 mins – 65.5% (20ml)
Kilchoman Tasting Glass
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.
Join us for another ‘Whisky & Food Pairing Live Tasting’ on Thursday 6th August at 7pm.
Following on from the huge success of our first whisky and food pairing with Great Glen Charcuterie, we are continuing the theme with more great foods produced from here on our doorstep in Scotland. In the next live tasting we will be pairing our whiskies with delicious west coast seafood from Gigha Halibut who are just across the water from us here on Islay.
Smoked to order, your Gigha Halibut fish is carefully selected and harvested, then allowed to rest with the fillets cured for a day. They are traditionally smoked using oak chips made from ex-Kilchoman casks, the peaty aromas bringing the best out in the Smoked Gigha Halibut. As always, you are welcome to join the live tastings with just the drams in the tasting pack, now available on the website shop, or you can choose to get the full whisky and food pairing experience from the comfort of your own home.
Click HERE to order your Smoked Gigha Halibut and find out more about how they source and produce their fish. Gigha Halibut are kindly offering a 10% discount for Kilchoman whisky fans to use on all products available on their online shop. Use the code KILCHOMAN to claim your discount. *(Orders should be placed by Wednesday 29th July).
The tasting will be broadcast live on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube at 7pm UK time on Thursday 6th August. We hope you can pour yourself a dram and join us and please send in your questions and comments during the tasting. Recordings will be available afterwards for anyone who would like to catch up at a later time.
Kilchoman Tasting Pack (on sale from our website) includes –
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 2020 – 46% (20ml) – The 2020 edition of Loch Gorm is a vatting of 21 oloroso sherry butts from 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011.
100% Islay 9th Edition – 50% (20ml) – Distilled from our 2007 and 2009 barley crops, the 9th edition is a vatting of 43 ex-bourbon barrels matured for over 9 years in our on-site dunnage warehouses.
Kilchoman Tasting Glass
We are delighted to announce we are re-opening our Visitor Centre on Wednesday 15th July.
We have been busy getting the Visitor Centre ready to welcome guests back to the distillery and we are looking forward to being able to do so from the 15th.
Our priority is of course the health and well being of our staff and visitors. We have followed all government guidelines and added our own additional safety measures to ensure we are opening as safely as possible.
- Face masks/covering must be worn at all times
- Track & trace system in place
- 2 metre social distancing at all times
- Adhere to signs and floor markings displayed
We will be offering a limited range of tours which must be pre-booked by telephone or email.
Tours
- Available 7 days per week – Diary open 2 weeks at a time
- Monday & Tuesday Classic Tour times are 10am/11am/3pm & 4pm £10pp. No other tours available.
- Wednesday – Sunday Tour times 10am/11am/1.30pm/2.30pm/3.30pm £10pp. No other tours available
- Pre-booked tours ONLY by telephone (01496 850 011) or email (tours@kilchomandistillery.com)
- Limited spaces (6 persons if multi groups/persons booking)
- Larger group bookings permitted if social distancing doesn’t need to be in place (max 10)
- No bookings online – phone/email only
Tastings
- Tasting packs available to purchase and take away to enjoy at home
- Tastings available at the distillery with the option of take away
Café
- Remains closed for sit in meals
- Soup & a small selection of sandwiches available to take away as well as home-baking, teas, coffees & soft drinks
- A pre-ordered take away lunch can be arranged with 24 hour notice – telephone the distillery for options.
We look forward to welcoming you at our new Visitor Centre. If you have any queries please contact us by email or telephone.
tel: +44 (0)1496 850 011 tours@kilchomandistillery.com
Join us for a ‘Whisky & Food Pairing Live Tasting’ on Thursday 9th July at 7pm.
Taste along with your Kilchoman Tasting Glass as we take you through our core range of whiskies, explaining how we make each whisky and what unique character and flavours can be found in each dram. Tasting packs are now on sale from our website. Click here to purchase.
You’re welcome to join the live tasting with just the drams, however, you now have the chance to try something different. Over the next few months we will be pairing Kilchoman with a variety of fantastic foods, and where better to look than on our doorstep in Scotland! From highland venison to island cheese and west coast seafood, we’ll be teaming up with some great Scottish producers to complement our whiskies.
For the tasting on the 9th July, we will be pairing four varieties of delicious salami and chorizos from Great Glen who specialise in producing charcuterie using only wild Scottish Venison. You can get the full whisky and food pairing experience from the comfort of your own home. Order the chosen venison salami and the 3 varieties of chorizo (venison, venison & pork and the chilli & venison) ahead of the tasting then you’re all set to join us live. Great Glen are kindly offering a 10% discount for Kilchoman whisky fans to use on all products available on their online shop. Click here and use the code KILCHOMAN to claim your discount. *(Orders should be placed by Monday 6th July).
Kilchoman Tasting Pack (on sale from our website) includes –
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 2020 – 46% (20ml) – The 2020 edition of Loch Gorm is a vatting of 21 oloroso sherry butts from 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011.
100% Islay 9th Edition – 50% (20ml) – Distilled from our 2007 and 2009 barley crops, the 9th edition is a vatting of 43 ex-bourbon barrels matured for over 9 years in our on-site dunnage warehouses.
Kilchoman Tasting Glass
Am Bùrach, gaelic for ‘the mess’, might seem a strange name for a limited edition single malt. That would be if you were not aware of the story behind this unique bottling; the delicious consequence of an incident in 2014 where two different Kilchoman expressions were mistakenly combined.
The unnamed stillman, whilst vatting casks, accidentally mixed Machir Bay (a core expression from Kilchoman) and Port Matured Kilchoman causing Islay Heads, General Manager, to describe the resulting whisky as ‘Am Bùrach’. The name stuck.
A true one-off, never to be repeated, Am Bùrach has a somewhat complicated nine year maturation, a vatting of bourbon and sherry matured Kilchoman combined with port cask matured in 2014, the whisky was then filled back in bourbon barrels for a further six years ahead a six month finish in ruby port casks.
“Making great whisky is often about being patient. In 2014 the whisky was all over the place but given time to mellow and develop it has become a wonderfully balanced and unique Kilchoman single malt.” Anthony Wills, Kilchoman Founder and Managing Director
Regardless of how Am Bùrach came to be, its depth of character sets it apart, rich, fruity and sweet on the nose, it coats the palate with red fruits, creamy sweetness and herbaceous peat smoke on the palate before a long finish of dried fruit and citrus sweetness. A single malt not to be missed out on with just 10,550 bottles being released worldwide.
In celebration of 15 years since Kilchoman Distillery was established on Islay, we are auctioning 15 individual casks of Kilchoman! It will be a rare chance to own a private cask of Kilchoman with only a small number of casks being offered in the first years of production. Since then we have greedily kept hold of almost every cask for our own bottlings as we soon realised there was not enough to share around.
These 15 casks will be auctioned in batches of 5 casks between now and the end of 2020, the first of these 5 casks will be ready for your bids on our Feis Ile Day, Thursday 28th May. These casks include a Bourbon barrel, Oloroso Sherry hogshead, Port hogshead, Madeira hogshead and an STR hogshead. All the information on the individual casks (volume, spirit type, strength, etc) and how to place your bid can be found in the Cask Auction page
The auction is hosted on the Kilchoman website and you will need to set up an account before registering to bid on the 5 casks. This is separate from your Kilchoman Club account and different login details will be needed here. Once you are all set up and registered you are free to bid away!
The auction for this first set of 5 casks will open at 20:00 on 28th May and all end on Thursday 11th June in one hour intervals from 12:00, however if a bid is placed within the last 5 minutes of the auction, an extra 5 minutes will be added. This is to help avoid missing out with any last second bids and any group consulting that is needed.
Happy bidding to you all and good luck!
JOIN US FOR ONLINE FÈIS ÌLE– THURSDAY 28th MAY
12 noon (Islay Time) – BARLEY – We talk all things barley, cows, sheep and Islay with General Manager, Islay.
13.00 – MALTING – Then on to the malt floor to meet up with Maltman, Derek, to discover the art of floor malting.
14.00 – DISTILLING – We discuss the intricacy of stills and the distillation process with Production Manager, Robin.
15.00 – CASKS – Then off to the warehouses for an overview of our maturing stocks with Anthony, Kilchoman Founder.
16.00 – BOTTLING – Last but not least we take a look inside the bottling hall with Bottling Manager, Michal.
18.00 – LIVE TASTING – GEORGE & PETER’S CORE RANGE (4 x 20ml packs with tasting glass available Tues 12th May -£19.99) – George & Peter Wills taste through our best known core range and limited edition Kilchoman’s including the Machir Bay, Sanaig, Loch Gorm 2020 and 100% 9th Edition.
Machir Bay – Core Expression – 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 – Core Expression – 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 2020 – Limited Edition – The 2020 edition of Loch Gorm is a vatting of 21 oloroso sherry butts from 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011.
100% Islay 9th Edition – Limited Edition – Distilled from our 2007 and 2009 barley crops, the 9th edition is a vatting of 43 ex-bourbon barrels matured for over 9 years in our on-site dunnage warehouses. Bottled at 50% abv, we’ve released a total of 12,000 bottles.
19.00 – LIVE TASTING – ANTHONY WILLS’ BARLEY AND YEAST (4 x 20ml packs with tasting glass available Tues 12th May – £25) – Anthony will explore how different barley and yeast varieties influence the character of our whiskies.
Concerto Barley – Bourbon Barrel 784/19 – Label Info: Barley Variety: Concerto, Field: Stone Cottage Field, Sown May, harvested September 2018, Kilchoman Malted: Peating Level 20ppm, Cask Type: Fresh Bourbon Barrel (Buffalo Trace), Distilled 07/07/2019, Bottled 04/05/2020
Octavia Barley – Bourbon Barrel 935/19 – Label Info: Barley Variety: Octavia, Field: Stone Cottage Field, Sown May, harvested September 2018, Kilchoman Malted: Peating Level 20ppm, Cask Type: Fresh Bourbon Barrel (Buffalo Trace), Distilled 07/07/2019, Bottled 04/05/2020
Mauri Yeast – Oloroso Hogshead 429/19 – Barley source: Port Ellen Malting,Peating Level: 50ppm. Yeast: Mauri. Cask Type: Oloroso Hogshead Distilled: 07/05/2019 Bottled: 04/05/2020
Kerry Yeast – Oloroso Hogshead 497/19 – Barley source: Port Ellen Malting,Peating Level: 50ppm. Yeast: Kerry. Cask Type: Oloroso Hogshead Distilled: 25/05/2019 Bottled: 04/05/2020
20.00 – CASK AUCTION OPENS FOR BIDS + LIVE TASTING – FÈIS ÌLE RELEASE
Due to the cancellation of Fèis Ìle 2020, this years release is an online exclusive with just 2630 bottles available at cask strength (54.2%). This release is matured in ex-bourbon barrels for a minimum of 12 years.
The Fèis Ìle Release and Tasting Packs will be available from the Kilchoman website at 2pm on Tuesday 12th May.
*Limited to two bottles per person and unfortunately we are currently unable to ship to the USA*
It is another busy time on our farm. Spring is here and Islay has been seeing some good weather recently so this week we’ve taken advantage of the weather window and have been busy sowing the barley seed which will be harvested in late summer and used to produce our 100% Islay spirit.
Similar to previous years we are planting two varieties of barley, this year it will be one familiar variety, Concerto, which has been the backbone of our barley crop over recent years and one new variety, Diablo, which we’ve not grown on the farm before.
A couple of weeks ago we took delivery of the Concerto seed which is one of our mainstay varieties that we’ve been using over the years as we’ve found it to be one of the best performers in terms of yield, it seems to suit our ground and stands up well against the challenging Islay weather. Most importantly, the new make spirit from Concerto is fantastically floral and balances well with the other aspects that influence the character of our whisky such as peat, stills, yeast and of course casks.
This year our second variety of barley is LG Diablo and we are trialling this to see how it crops and compares to Concerto. LG Diablo, Diablo meaning Devil in Spanish, is advertised with the slogan ‘yields like hell’ so we’re obviously hoping this is true for us! It is a relatively new variety, but it seems to have good characteristics that we hope will suit our ground and the weather on Islay which is more than interesting at times…………
We will keep you up to date with progress over the coming months.
Due to popular demand, we have organised another online tasting event which you can take part in from home on Friday 10th April 6pm (UK time).
In this Tasting Pack there is a mixture of a new release, a pre release and cask samples to get stuck into as Anthony and James discuss all things Kilchoman.
* Fino Cask – 59%abv
* Am Burach Sample – 46%abv
* 100% Islay Bourbon Barrel – 55.3%abv
* Loch Gorm – 46%abv
The New Make ‘Sanitiser’ is a little extra thrown into the pack for you, at over 60%abv the spirit running from our stills can act as a hand sanitiser to kill off the germs pre tasting.
coming out in 2020.
With the 2020 Preview Tasting Pack you can taste along with your Kilchoman Glencairn glass as Anthony and James Wills preview the 4 limited edition releases coming out in 2020. Even if you didn’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!
