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Kilchoman
celebrates 15 year of whisky production
at their Islay farm distillery.
Kilchoman distillery on Islay went
into production back in 2005, it was the
first new distillery on the Isle of
Islay in 124 years and almost exactly 15
year to this day, on 14th December 2005,
they filled the very first Kilchoman
cask at the distillery.
The distillery was founded by Anthony
Wills and is Islay’s only farm
distillery, producing Single Farm Single
Malt Whisky and it is one of the few
whisky distilleries in Scotland to
remain independently owned and run by the
Wills family.
Just over 3 years later in 2009 as their
spirit came of age the very first
Kilchoman single malt whisky was
released, a limited run of 3 year old
which was bottled for general release
from the 9th September 2009.
The increasing popularity of the whisky
they produce at Kilchoman led the owners
to double production in 2019 with the
construction of a second distillery
which mirrored the existing one taking
Kilchoman's production capacity to
480,00 litres perannum.
 Comparing barley varieties and how they
influence the character of the spirit is
something Kilchoman Distillery often
talk about. Anthony Wills, Founder &
Managing Director, is a great believer
that barley variety and yeast type plays
a huge part in the overall
characteristics of the spirit and it is
something which he enjoys experimenting
with. The different barley varieties are
now kept completely separate throughout
the whole production process and in
cask.
Kilchoman have grown concerto as their
consistent choice of barley variety for
the last five or six years and have
found it performs very well. For the
last three years they’ve experimented
with growing a different variety of
barley alongside the concerto. In 2019
they grew sassy for the first time on
the farm and are now running it through
the production process. Immediately
differences in the character at the
mashing and fermentation stages were
noticed. On the nose, the
characteristics are different. Sassy has
a lemon and citrus note, it is very
clean and fresh whereas concerto,
although also very clean and fresh, it
has more creaminess about it, richer and
perhaps more depth.
Although there are very clear
differences in the character of the
spirit at this stage, Anthony still
believes that the cask plays the biggest
part in terms of the overall character
of the single malt that you will enjoy,
Anthony commented: "It will be
interesting to continue making these
comparisons between the spirit from
concerto and sassy throughout the
maturation stage".
If you have a taste for peaty whisky
you should like Kilchoman, they produce a number of
quality peaty single malts today, their
core range consists of the outstanding
Kilchoman Machir Bay and Sanaig and
there are regular releases of the
limited edition bourbon cask matured
Kilchoman 100% Islay and
sherry matured Loch Gorm. There are also
limited edition one off releases once
and a while which are worth looking out
for.
You will find the current Kilchoman
whisky range available from specialist
online whisky retailers such as
The Whisky Exchange,
The Whisky Shop and
Master of Malt
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