The 100% Islay 14th Edition was distilled from our 2013 and 2014 barley harvests before being matured in selected bourbon and oloroso sherry casks for a minimum of 9 years.

This year, Anthony Wills, Kilchoman founder, has decided on a cask ratio of Bourbon 9:1 Oloroso Sherry.  The combination of bourbon and sherry cask maturation has created layers of vanilla, butterscotch, and rich fruity character that balance beautifully with the natural citrus sweetness and floral peat smoke of our 100% Islay spirit.

“Our 100% Islay releases are the culmination of efforts made at each stage of the process, from sowing the barley back in 2013 and 2014, through harvesting, malting, distilling and maturation, all done on-site here at Kilchoman. This year we selected a combination of bourbon and sherry cask maturation. In my eyes, the contrasting influences create a lovely balance of richness and light floral character,”

Anthony Wills, Kilchoman Founder.

Our Distillery is situated on Rockside Farm which covers around 3,000 acres on the north-west coast of Islay. The parish of Kilchoman is home to some of Islay’s most fertile ground.  It is here, in the fields surrounding the distillery, where we can grow up to 440 tonnes of barley each year for our annual 100% Islay range.

Sown each spring, once Islay’s 50,000 geese have migrated, our farm team care for the barley over the summer months before harvesting in early September.  Harvest time represents the start of the whisky-making process which sees our Kilchoman grown barley malted, distilled, matured and bottled here at the distillery, eventually becoming Islay’s only Single Farm Single Malt Scotch Whisky.

The 100% Islay 14th Edition (70cl, 50% vol.) will be available from your local stockists in the UK and across the world from this week. For those of you who live in countries further away, bottles may take a few more weeks to find themselves on shelves.

Contact us by email for more information – admin@kilchomandistillery.com

To be amongst the first to hear about all our new releases click here to sign up and join the Kilchoman Club for free

We are very excited to announce that we’ll be offering a limited number of private casks exclusively to our Club Members through a ballot system which opened on Wednesday 21st August and closes at midday on Tuesday 3rd September.

If you aren’t already a Kilchoman Club Member, then you can
sign up for free here

With the exception of 15 casks auctioned in 2020 to celebrate our 15th Anniversary, our production capacity has meant offering private casks has not been possible since 2008. Our stillhouse expansion in 2019 changed that and we now have the capacity to offer Club Members the chance to purchase their own cask of Kilchoman!

A limited number of first fill ex-bourbon barrels will be made available for £5,250 per cask. These casks have been filled within the last few months with our 50ppm heavily peated spirit, the same spirit that forms the basis for our Machir Bay and Sanaig releases.

The cask ballot will open on August 21st and close at midday on September 3rd. Once the ballot closes, winners will be drawn at random and all entrants will receive an email within 48hrs confirming whether they have been successful or not.

Click here for more information or to enter the ballot

The semi-finals of our Shake the Farm Cocktail Competition are now complete and we are all set for the finals which will take place on Islay in September.

We were overwhelmed by the incredible levels of creativity and skills that candidates showcased across the competition.  Selecting only one bartender per heat to advance to the final stage was an extremely difficult task. Each contestant poured their heart and soul into creating a unique and meaningful drink, making it a delight to taste them all.

The competition rules were simple; bartenders across the UK were asked to create a drink that showcased Kilchoman Batch Strength alongside at least one British farmed or foraged ingredient. The brief resulted in an eclectic range of cocktails which was exactly what we were hoping for.

The first heat took place in Edinburgh where the bartenders each presented their cocktail creations. Tucked in Lady Libertine’s basement bar, the semi-finalists took us through the story behind their drink and explained the reasoning for their ingredient choices.  A wide variety of farmed and foraged ingredients were selected, and some truly ingenious methods were devised to use them.  We’ve seen all things from nettle infused vermouth to toasted oats and banana tea.

The one drink that stole the show was ‘Eidyn’ by Glenn Murray. His presentation was spotless and sprinkled with a lot of knowledge of Kilchoman. His creation was served with a side of crumble made up of all the byproducts of the cocktail ingredients, nothing was wasted.

The second heat took place in Manchester at the Whiskey Jar.  Everyone who took part in this heat had travelled from outside of the city so we salute their engagement and thank them for taking the time to come along and participate.

Choosing a winner was no easy task once again. From bone-marrow infused Batch Strength to brown butter and fig cream, we were served with an array of delicious cocktails made with “out of the box” ingredients.

But Alex Holmes’s drink, ‘The Play Barn’, really took us on a sensory journey. Who would have thought that a three ingredients cocktail could be so complex and so delicious! The story behind it was linked with Alex’s past so it was a very insightful trip down memory lane. Well done!

For the last leg of the semi-finals, we headed to Swift Borough in London.  Once again, we were left humbled by the levels of flair and creativity. We tasted hand-pickled strawberry brine, beetroot shrub, fig leaf and sweet woodruff soda… some of the ingredients were made with tools only scientists would normally use!

After much deliberation, the judges chose Kuba Korzynski’s drink, ‘Lil’ Love Affair’ as the winner. It was the combination of amazing ingredients used and great knowledge and presentation that made Kuba’s drink stand out.

Our finalists, Glenn, Alex and Kuba, will come to the distillery to compete in a final head-to-head cocktail making challenge to become the first ever Kilchoman Shake the Farm competition winner. The winner will then select an on-trade exclusive Single Cask which will bear their name and leave with a case of it!

If you fancy giving any of the winning cocktails a go yourself, here are the ingredients used …

Eidyn by Glenn Murray

35ml Kilchoman Batch Strength Whisky
25ml Brown Butter Avallen Calvados
25ml Apple, Bramble and Rhubarb infused Blossom Honey Syrup
70ml Rhubarb Honey Soda

The Play Barn by Alex Holmes

30ml Kilchoman Batch Strength
20ml Blackberry Leaf Liqueur
70ml Hay Soda

Lil’ Love Affair by Kuba Korzynski

30ml Kilchoman Batch Strength
25ml rhubarb turbo-cordial
15ml brioche liqueur
Dash wild horseradish distillate

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank the bars that hosted us during the semi-finals and also the judges, Stefanie Anderson and Kat Stanley-Whyte who really helped us with their insights and experience.

We will update you on how the final goes in September!

After a very busy start to the season and another successful Fèis Ìle behind us, we are busy focusing on plans for Summer 2024.   

In addition to our usual tours, we have some special experiences to take place from July 22nd to August 19th. 

The first of these is our Farm tour. This will be available to book on Mondays and Wednesdays, during that period. As a farm distillery we are very proud of our agricultural heritage and this tour will give you the chance to see the barley fields up close, visit our peat bank and explore the area that has inspired us to make our award-winning whiskies, all from the comfort of our Kilchoman Land Rover. And to make it even better you get to sample five delicious drams along the way. 

The next is a Beach Tasting – a firm favourite in recent years.  

Spend an hour with one of our guides on the shores of Machir Bay as we talk you through four of our core range whiskies telling you stories from the distillery while soaking up the atmosphere of one of Islay’s most beautiful beaches.

Don’t worry if you do not have time for a tour, you can try the full range of our whiskies as well as some exclusives and archive releases at our whisky bar, which is open from 10am-4.45pm and does not require a booking. 

Our café is open from 12 – 3.30pm serving lunches – including our world-famous Cullen skink. We serve tea, coffee and home baking from 10am – 4.30pm.  

Booking is advisable for lunch as we do get very busy and do not want to disappoint anyone.  Dogs are very welcome, and we have designated tables in the café so if you are bringing your four-legged friend, please advise at time of booking so we can reserve the correct table for you. 

We look forward to a busy summer, welcoming back familiar faces as well as sharing some new experiences with you all.  

The visitor centre is open seven days a week. 

For more information, or to book a tour, please click here 

Famous all over the world for its whisky, but it’s beauty, people and wildlife are what keeps people coming back year on year. Known as “The Queen of the Hebrides”, she lives up to her title every day. From the dark, stormy & quiet winters to the bright, vibrant summer months – both equally as picturesque. There really is no place in the world quite like it, and Kilchoman is lucky to be one of the 10 distilleries currently producing whisky on this beautiful Island we call home.

Before we go any further, let’s talk pronunciation. There have been many versions over the years – “EYE-LAY”, “IS-LAY”. Neither are correct. It is pronounced “EYE-LAH” (you will earn serious brownie points with the locals if you say it right!).

Another is location. A lot of people think of the Scottish islands and assume they are all very far north, but Islay is actually the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides. Only 23 miles across the water to Northern Ireland. It measures 240 miles squared with a population of roughly 3,500 people – with that doubling during the peak summer season. This makes it the 5^th largest island in Scotland by size and 7^th largest by population.

Despite being relatively small compared to the rest of the world, we produce almost 22 million litres of spirit between 10 distilleries. To complete such a task, it does mean most of Islay’s residents work in the whisky industry. If they are not directly employed by a distillery, they have been contracted to do work at the distillery, grow barley, work in a hotel for the tourists who visit, they have a small business that is supported by the visitors. I have always admired the work ethic of locals and how we bind together as a community to contribute towards not only the success of the whisky but of island as a whole.

The natural variation in Islay’s geology means it supports a range of environments from dark peat bogs and heather moorlands to luscious woodland and picturesque grasslands. The Rhinns of Islay (the area of land on Islay the distillery is situated) is made up of a rock formation dated from 3 billion years ago, helping to form Islay’s rich history with the earliest known settlers dating back to 10,800BC – one of the earliest recorded in Scotland.

Due to the islands varied geology, ecosystems and geographical affects, it allows the island to give us an extremely diverse array of flora and fauna. It is particularly famous for its birdlife with more than 200 species including everything from golden eagles, choughs, geese & corncrakes.

Despite birds being so populus, visiting Islay you may also see red deer, otters, highland cows and even the occasional snake…. if you are less lucky. Look out into the waters around the island and you could see, minke whales, seals, killer whales, basking sharks and bottle-nosed dolphins.

Rockside Farm is on the northwest of the island, about 2 miles away from the edge of the Atlantic Ocean – meaning next stop Nova Scotia! This does test us when it comes to growing barley as despite the ground being very fertile, the harsh winds from the Atlantic cover the land in a layer of salt, which can really prove difficult when trying to maximise our yields.

With that being said, when it comes to cutting peat, we love the salt filled Atlantic winds. Islay is famous for a specific type of peat smoke – oily, iodine, heavy maritime peat smoke. We cut our peat about 3 miles from the distillery so that distinct Islay character is always prominent in Kilchoman and marries beautifully with our light, floral, citrus new make spirit, making it integral to the style of whisky we aim to create.

There is no doubt that it is the whisky that brings most people to Islay, but it’s beautiful scenery with windswept beaches, rugged moorlands and beautiful coastlines are also truly encapsulating. The vast span of rare wildlife on your doorstep. The friendly people with their chatty personalities and iconic ‘Islay wave’, the sense of community and an atmosphere that is indescribable. It truly is the most unique place in the world.

The 2024 Awards season is well underway, and we are extremely pleased to announce that Kilchoman has been doing very well. All three of our core range whiskies have taken home a prize at The Spirits Business Scotch Whisky Masters (2024) in the ‘Single Malt up to 12 years’ category. Our Machir Bay was presented with a gold award and both our Sanaig and our new core range edition, Batch Strength, received the highest accolade in the same competition, the Master award. All of us at the distillery are extremely proud and honoured with these results.

Machir Bay was our first ever core range whisky, released back in 2012. It has naturally evolved over the years but still remains true to its distinctive Kilchoman character. Machir Bay gets it name from the picturesque beach, only a short distance from the distillery. We create it using 50ppm malted barley and mature it in both Bourbon barrels and Oloroso Sherry casks in our on-site warehouses. It is a vatting of 90% bourbon barrels and 10% Sherry casks that we bottle as a NAS (non-age-statement) at 46%ABV. Machir Bay represents a classic Kilchoman style; rich citrus fruit, balanced with lingering crisp Islay peat smoke.

Sanaig was introduced later to the portfolio in 2014 and since launching it has brought a fresh perspective to the classic style of Kilchoman. Named after a small rocky inlet a couple of miles from the distillery, Sanaig is also a vatting of both Bourbon barrels and Oloroso Sherry casks. The majority of its production follows the exact same method as Machir Bay; same ABV, age, peating level and cask types. The difference in the two whiskies comes right at the very end of the process when they are vatted. Sanaig showcases a greater influence from the Sherry casks with 70% and the other 30% being Bourbon barrels. The high percentage of oloroso sherry influence adds a balance of dried fruits and spices to the classic Kilchoman citrus sweetness and peat smoke character.

Batch Strength is the most recent addition to our core range, having only been released this year. It has long been our desire to create something with a higher ABV than Machir Bay and Sanaig to amplify the power and showcase the depth of flavour from Kilchoman. Similar to our other core range whiskies, there are both bourbon barrels and oloroso sherry casks in the vatting, however, the Batch Strength contains 20% re-charred Portuguese red wine casks, creating a unique and distinctive character with sweet dark fruits, rich spices and salted caramel. All of this is amplified with the bottling strength of 57%ABV, producing a bold and powerful whisky.

Thank you to all the Kilchoman fans for their continued support which allows us to be in a position to win these awards. All three of these whiskies can be found in shops and bars around the world. For more info on where to find your nearest retailer, please get in touch with admin@kilchomandistillery.com.

It’s official, we’ve made it back to Islay with our trusty pick-up, without incident this year, and happy to have made it back in time for Fèis Ìle!

The last leg of our European tour took us through the Netherlands, Belgium, England, Ireland and finally Scotland. It amounts to a total of 20 countries travelled in just over 2 months and it has been an absolute blast from start to finish. We’d like to thank you all for coming out to support us and hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

James was joined by myself in Rotterdam for the Dutch part of the tour where we were able to showcase the Batch Strength in an array of beautiful venues, as well as some rare single casks. To top this off, the sun was shining bright and we were able to show off our tour t-shirts again (after a slightly chilly trip through Scandinavia)!

This leg took us through Rotterdam, Nijmegen, Pijnacker and finally Sluis where Peter took over from James and continued the escapades into Belgium with me.

The first stop in Belgium was Antwerp where we hosted a lovely evening masterclass and also a barrel-top tasting during the day.

We then headed to Angleur, stopping at two different shops along the way, welcomed by both new and familiar faces. At the evening masterclass, we were able to sharpen our French skills and finally indulge in some world-famous Belgium fries… they did not disappoint!

The following day, we were kept busy with three stops on our route to Mechelen, seeing a plethora of Kilchoman lovers at every pit-stop, even at 11am mid-week… Who doesn’t like ‘cereals’ for breakfast?

Peter then switched places with Catherine who finished the Belgium leg with me.

We drove through to Zottegem for a relaxed afternoon tasting and finished the day’s drive in Heule for another evening event. For our last day in Belgium, we headed towards Heuvelland for a full day of whisky shenanigans, starting with an afternoon sampling session with over 20 different Kilchoman releases, a unique chance to try some of our historical releases that was greatly appreciated by the crowd and also myself…

To finish our Belgian stint with a bang, we hosted an in-depth masterclass comparing the impact of full maturation vs finishes and 1^st fill vs 2^nd. It was then time to pass the torch to Emma and George after ducking back under the Channel to continue the tour.

Ken

Emma and I met up with Catherine and Ken at Gatwick Airport for a quick debrief before the tour continued.

The UK and Ireland leg of the tour took us south to Brighton before heading west to Bath. Thanks to The Whisky Shops for putting on great events. We also had a first for the tour… A parking ticket! I am just surprised we managed to avoid one until the final week.

Next stop was Manchester, and it soon came apparent that the traffic in England was some of the worst we had experienced, but it was nice to be driving on the right (left) side of the road.

Wednesday morning started a little earlier than planned with a ferry cancellation resulting in a 5.45am dash to catch the first boat to Dublin. It was not all bad as we were greeted in Dublin with a nice pint of Guinness on a rare night off. The next day was spent at the Celtic Whisk(e)y Shop and then a fun filled evening in the Flowing Tide Pub for an evening tasting.

KWM Wines in Kilkeel, Northern Ireland, was next on the list. An amazing shop that had a wide selection of Kilchoman on offer. The crowd that evening included many Kilchoman first timers who enjoyed an informal tasting in the shop.

It was a slightly more sociable hour for our ferry back to Scotland and a visit to our friends at Robbie’s Drams in Ayr. A great way to kick off the Scottish leg, a packed 11am tasting. The final few days of the tour were spent in Glasgow, Edinburgh and then Inverary, before George and the pick up made it back to the distillery (without picking up any more parking tickets). It was nice to finish this year’s tour in the same vehicle we started in for once!

Thank you to all the shops, bars and distributors that welcomed us all and made sure that our Batch Strength European Tour was a huge success.

George

The Sauternes Cask Matured has now arrived! The Sauternes Cask Matured limited edition has spent its full maturation in ex-sauternes wine casks. Anthony Wills, Kilchoman Founder, selected a combination of fresh and refill Sauternes barriques from two separate years, the youngest being from 2018, creating an extraordinary balance of buttery sweetness, barbecued pineapple, candied ginger and floral peat smoke.

Sauternes maturation is a challenge, particularly full-term maturation, that’s why it is so rare.  Our first release of sauternes cask matured Kilchoman, in 2016, was matured entirely in fresh (first fill) sauternes casks for five years. The second edition, released in 2018, was finished for five months in sauternes casks.

This time Anthony decided on a vatting of 22% fresh and 78% refill casks from two distillation years. This roughly 3:1 ratio of fresh and refill casks creates the perfect balance of sauternes influence and Kilchoman character. Most of the refill casks selected were previously used for the 2018 sauternes finish release. Using sauternes casks for finishing is the ideal preparation for full maturation, the shorter finishing period extracts the most intense sauternes influence, creating casks that develop plenty of sauternes character without losing structure or balance.

“After a six-year absence, the Sauternes Cask Matured Kilchoman is back! The previous edition was a Sauternes finish, now it’s time for a return to the full power that complete maturation in these wine casks brings. Waves of sweet fruits and butterscotch balanced with our Islay peat smoke, a delicious dram,”

Anthony Wills, Kilchoman Founder.

The Sauternes Cask Matured (70cl, 50% vol.) will be available from your local stockists in the UK and across the world from this week. For those of you who live in countries further away, bottles may take a few more weeks to find themselves on shelves.

For more information please email admin@kilchomandistillery.com

Back on the road again for another busy few weeks, joining the tour in Sweden before travelling through into Norway, Denmark and Germany. 16 out of the 20 countries have now been ticked off the list – the Batch Strength pickup is really clocking up the miles now! Let me fill you in on what we have been up too….

I arrived in Malmö, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, to take over from Catherine and meet George. After sorting out the minor issue of booking a hotel in the wrong city (easy mistake…), it was smooth sailing! Sweden welcomed Kilchoman with open arms, meeting a lot of familiar faces and were shown photos from the first ever European tour 10 years ago where, annoyingly, George looked exactly same!

We headed to Fiskebäckskil for the final stop in Sweden, and my jaw was on the floor by what we were met with. From the outside, it looked like a small boat shed, and when we walked in, the entire space was covered floor to ceiling with whisky bottles—almost 3000! The town was small, but the tasting drew in a crowd, with people travelling from all over to take part. We are very grateful to everyone who makes the effort join us on tour.

Next, it was a long drive to Norway, where I had my face pressed against the window trying to spot a moose (I was unsuccessful). We had two packed days with bar visits, masterclasses, and Kilchoman whisky cocktails. George and I ended up in Oslo on the same day as a marathon – unfortunately, we were far too busy to take part! But it did mean the city would prove very difficult to drive around, so we decided it was safer to leave the pickup in the garage, and it just so happened that meant both myself and George could indulge in some Kilchoman cocktails, which got both of our seals of approval!

I said goodbye to George, and Peter joined me as we drove 8 hours back through Sweden and across to Denmark. We hit the ground running in Denmark with a busy day in Copenhagen visiting shops, hosting a masterclass, and, of course, stopping by to offer the little mermaid a dram of Batch Strength before heading off to Odense, Harlev, Randers, and Varde over the next few days. We visited some incredible whisky shops, including the showroom for whisky.dk, which was a whisky lover’s dream! And the most unusual whisky shop I have ever visited where you could buy a bottle of Machir Bay at the same time as buying paint samples, a frying pan or a samurai sword. Asking the shop owner, he told us that “if they want it, I will sell it”, a true businessman I thought. 

Peter and I then headed to Germany for what we thought would be a regular in-shop tasting, but we were told we would be driving the pickup into the CITTI supermarket and parking it next to the fruit and vegetable aisle. A very strange experience for us and I’m sure the shoppers as well. In the following days, we held some fantastic tastings and masterclasses, chatted with some familiar faces, and taught some newbies all about Kilchoman. I said goodbye to Peter and was joined by James (who brought the lovely Scottish rain with him) to finish the rest of the tour in Germany, rounding off the week with a 130-person tasting in Nürnberg.

Now, after 16 days. It’s time to head home to catch up on some rest and, no doubt, talk about Kilchoman in my sleep before re-joining the tour for the final leg in the UK. Keep your eyes peeled for more updates, and if we haven’t visited you yet, we will see you very soon! 

Emma