Kilchoman Distillery

Opening in 2005, Kilchoman is surrounded by fields of barley at Rockside farm on the west coast of the Isle of Islay. No longer the youngest distillery on Islay since the founding of Ardnahoe, Kilchoman was still the first distillery built on the island in over 120 years.

When Anthony Willis began laying plans for the distillery in 2002, he had a view towards returning farm distilling to Islay. When production got underway in 2005 Kilchoman made extensive use of barley from Rockside, with the remainder coming from elsewhere on Islay.

A fire broke out just a year into operations which caused production to halt for several weeks. Malting, however, was forced to cease for six months as a consequence. Undeterred by this, Kilchoman continued to expand, with new warehouses built and two washbacks added in the following year.

Just under a third of the malt for Kilchoman is produced in house, with the remainder coming from Port Ellen. Committed to keeping every stage of production on Islay, Kilchoman also handles its own maturing and bottling on site.

A major expansion took place in 2019, with a completely new still house built complete with two new stills. This wasn’t replacing the old one, but adding to the distillery’s capacity. Now Kichoman is equipped with two 1.2 ton mash tuns, 12 stainless steel washbacks, and four stills. These give the distillery a production capacity of 480,000 litres of spirits a year.

Kilchoman whiskies have an intoxicating combination of maritime peatiness and light citrus flavours. The first whisky released from the distillery was a 3 year old which came out in 2009.

Today the two core whiskies from Kilchoman are the signature Machir Bay and the Sanaig. The Machir Bay is aged in ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry casks, with the majority of its time given to the Bourbon. The nose on this whisky starts sharp, with citrus and brine notes along with some sweet peat smoke. The palate carries richer sweetness, tropical fruit, and more smoke before a long finish with sea salt, spice and sherry sweetness.

The Loch Gorm and 100% Islay are both technically Limited Editions. But they receive new bottlings each year. Other Limited Editions have included multiple Vintage bottlings and wood expressions including Sauternes, Port, Red Wine, and Madeira.