The air is a little colder and the nights are a little longer up on Islay as we head into November. It’s that time of year when Anthony Wills heads into the warehouse to pick something special out for the Kilchoman Club and you won’t be disappointed with what he found!
Lurking at the back of the north warehouse were two casks from our first full year of production in 2006, one first fill oloroso sherry butt and one fresh bourbon barrel. We have vatted these ten year old casks together and bottled them at their natural cask strength (57%). The powerful rich fruits from the sherry cask and the beautiful vanilla and citrus from the bourbon wood have combined with the Kilchoman spirit over the past ten years to produce something pretty special. We hope you agree when having a dram yourself..
This is the first ten year old release we have done from the distillery that is available worldwide and there will be approximately 920 bottles of this Fifth Edition Club Release, exclusively available to Club members. Unfortunately we can’t send to every country but have a look at the link to see where we can ship to (certain US States are unavailable) – http://kilchomandistillery.com/terms-conditions
The retail price will be £109.50 and will be available on Monday 14th November at 1pm GMT from the Kilchoman website. Unfortunately due to the limited number of bottles this will be available on a one bottle per person basis. Please follow the steps below to order your bottle on the 14th –
Go to www.kilchomandistillery.com; Sign in/up to the Kilchoman club in the top right hand side of the homepage; go to the ‘whisky shop’; go to ‘club releases’ and you will see the Club Release available.
It’s a wet and windy day here on Islay but we hope to brighten the mood by announcing our second limited edition release of the Original Cask Strength expression. Bottled in 2014, the first edition was matured entirely in ex bourbon barrels, this, the second edition, has been matured for over six years in quarter casks and bottled at cask strength (56.9%).
Roughly a quarter the size of a 500 litre butt, Quarter Casks allow for increased whisky to wood contact within the barrel compared to larger conventional cask types. This increased wood contact creates pronounced caramel and vanilla character in this expression. The combination of these smaller casks and the fruity, peat smoked Kilchoman spirit is remarkable.
95 quarter casks were vatted to produce just over 12,000 bottles of this limited edition at natural cask strength of 56.9%abv. The Original Cask Strength will be available worldwide from next week. A limited number of bottles will also be available here on our website at 10am on Monday 26th September – £69.00 (one bottle per person limit – sorry!).
If you are unsure about the countries we ship to then please see the link for a full list – http://kilchomandistillery.com/terms-conditions
This year’s Kilchoman barley has been safely harvested and stored, thank goodness! The weather has now turned and it’s feeling decidedly Autumnal here on Islay. This year we grew a record 165 tonnes of Concerto barley in the fields to the north and west of the distillery, the farm team did a fantastic job to harvest in a short spell of good weather in early September. They weren’t helped by the combine harvester breaking down 10 metres into the first field, luckily, and in true Islay spirit, our neighbours, Raymond Stewart from Sunderland Farm and Andrew Jones from Coull Farm, turned up with their combines to help. Whilst 165 tonnes is the most we have ever grown here we were in fact hoping for a slightly higher yield. The barley got off to a good start but the weather went wet at the wrong time which meant that the grains did not fill out properly. Such is life and typical of growing barley in such challenging conditions.
The 165 tonnes harvested has now been dried and will be used for malting and distilling of Kilchoman 100% Islay spirit throughout 2017. We are yet to formulate plans for next year however they are likely to involve growing a similar quantity to this year although we may experiment with a variety called Planet which some Islay farmers have grown this year with some success though this would likely be in only a couple of fields. We’ll keep you posted!
From September 26th to October 9th, the Wills brothers will embark on a tour down the East Cost of the US spreading the word of Kilchoman. James and Peter Wills, sons of Kilchoman Founder Anthony Wills will travel from Boston to Washington DC in their custom Land Rover making stops along the way to share a few drams and a story or two of Kilchoman, Islay and growing up in a distillery.
The tour is the second of its type, the brothers having completed two such expeditions across Europe in 2014 and 2015. They’ll be giving a straight talking ‘warts and all’ depiction of distilling and the ups and downs of creating a new Islay whisky.
James Wills ‘There is a lot of smoke and mirrors when it comes to how single malt and scotch whisky in general is produced and marketed, if you’ve ever met my father you’ll know there isn’t a lot of subtlety to him or how he talks about whisky and I think that has inevitably rubbed off on me and my brothers.’
Peter Wills ‘The tour concept seems to be one which resonates with single malt fans. The previous two tours through Europe have been a great way of meeting current and prospective fans of Kilchoman and we are looking forward to our first ever tour in the US.’
A special edition cask strength, 58.9% ABV, US Tour bottling of the distilleries flagship expression, Machir Bay has been created especially for the tour. Just 840 bottles of the special edition will be available exclusively from stops made on their journey.
VIEW THE TOUR ROUTE AND EVENTS HERE
We are delighted to announce the first ever Sauternes Cask Matured Kilchoman. The Limited Edition release of just 6,000 bottles will be available from Kilchoman stockists worldwide this week. The exclusive bottling has been matured for over five years in Sauternes casks.
The Sauternes Cask Matured follows Port and Madeira cask matured expressions released in recent years and continues our commitment to small batch ‘full term maturation’ rather than the more common practice of finishing whisky in such casks for a short period prior to bottling.
Anthony Wills, Kilchoman founder and Managing Director; “Although only making up a small part of our range, full term wine cask maturation in Port, Madeira and now Sauternes has produced fantastic results. The combination of peat smoke, fragrant Kilchoman spirit and full maturation in fresh Sauternes casks makes for a truly unique single malt.”
Robin Bignall, Kilchoman Production Manager; “Having spent its full maturation period in fresh Sauternes casks the whisky has inevitably taken on the textured white age influence associated with Sauternes casks however it remains balanced with an intriguing mix of maritime peat smoke, sweetness and citrus vibrancy.”
A limited number of bottles will be available here on the Kilchoman website from 10am this Wednesday (the 7th) priced at £73.50 (70cl, 50% ABV).
Having surprised many by being awarded Best Islay Single Malt at the 2016 International Whisky Competition, Kilchoman have since been awarded Best Single Malt Scotch Whisky (no age statement) at the prestigious International Wine and Spirits Competition (IWSC).
NAS (Non Age Statement) whiskies now form the largest segment in Single Malt with almost 80% of Scotch Whisky sold not having an age statement, making Kilchoman’s success all the more impressive.
Anthony Wills, Kilchoman Founder and Managing Director ‘We are thrilled that Sanaig has been named the best Single Malt Scotch Whisky – No Age Statement in this year’s IWSC. The IWSC is the most prestigious awards in the industry and is reward for the dedication and hard work of Robin Bignal, Distillery Manager and his team here at the distillery’.
‘To win two significant awards in a short space of time is extremely pleasing and shows that we must being doing something right.’
On the 11th June Kilchoman took up sponsorship of the Islay Beach Rugby 2016 tournament. The beach rugby competition has gone from strength to strength over the years, attracting players from far and wide, including some ex internationals. It has become one of the highlights of the Islay calendar with plenty of local food and drink for everyone to enjoy as well as the feast of rugby on show.
The ‘Battle on the Beach’ was a huge success and thank you to Islay rfc for putting on a great event. Both mens and womens competitions were fiercely competitive and certainly not for the faint hearted! Although the sun only shone briefly on the day, a large crowd fuelled by drams of Machir Bay stayed until the end to watch the finals played out on Port Ellen beach.
Congratulations to Team 200 who came out victorious in the womens final and we are very proud to say Kilchoman won the mens competition, a third triumph in a row!
Thank you to everyone who came along and made it such a great day. Looking forward to next year already!
Kilchoman are the proud sponsors of the Islay Pipe Band. They have been hugely successful and in order to support them this year we have bottled a single cask with all the proceeds being donated to keep the Islay Pipe Band competing at the top!
The bottling is a single bourbon cask from 2011 at 59.5%abv. The tasting notes are by John Maclellans son Sandy, who is an active member of the Islay Pipe Band. The rear of the carton shows a happy John MacLellan with Sandy on his graduation day. This is for sale at the distillery for £80 per bottle by cash or cheque only. Only a few bottles left now…
The big news is that Machir Bay has been crown Best Islay Single Malt Whisky at this year’s International Whisky Competition… a bit of healthy competition between neighbours is never a bad thing! As well as the coveted 1st place in the Islay category, Machir Bay also secured 1st for Best Peated Whisky and 2nd for the marquee title of Best Single Malt Whisky.
Click below for a full list of results
www.whiskycompetition.com/2016-results/
Rockside farm is situated on the west coast of Islay. We are on the Gulf Stream which keeps our weather relatively mild and usually wet. In the winter we have strong winds and sometimes severe gales that whip in straight off the Atlantic.
We farm 2,322 acres of which only some 160 acres are suitable for growing barley and 1,738 is hill ground.
Islay is an important wintering ground for the Greenland barnacle goose and the Greenland white-fronted goose. In October/ November annually around 45,000 geese flock to the island and remain until mid April. The geese graze on grass and cause a large amount of damage as they tend to pull the root of the grass out and they “puddle” in any wet areas which can create a lot of muddy areas within fields that take time to recover. This results in several problems. The grass that should be there for the for sheep lambing in March and April is not a good as it could be due to the pressure caused by grazing geese. At Rockside we do not start lambing until c. 17th April to ensure that the geese have gone and the sheep get all the available grass which they need to produce milk for the lamb and to put condition back on after lambing. The presence of the geese also stops us from planting barley much before mid April as the geese will eat the shoots that emerge and will also eat the barley seed out of the ground. This delay in planting usually results in a later harvest than we would like, typically around late August and early September. Days at this time of year are starting to draw in and the weather windows for harvest are short so when an opportunity presents itself it needs to be taken.
This year we are planting c. 100 acres. Due to the very wet winter and the current ground conditions we have not started ploughing yet. We hope to start within the next week and would expect to have the planting completed within the next 5 – 10 days. This will tie in with when we hope the geese will leave. The colder weather at present is also not great for seed germination and with the rain we have had the ground conditions are far from perfect.
The financial risks for doing barley are considerable as all costs are paid at the time of planting and we totally rely on the weather for the crop. Why do we bother – just taste a dram of 100% Islay – makes all the worry and risk worthwhile!
