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Release Notes
Our single sherry cask of standard Kilchoman was an easy choice. The malt was simply brilliant, so good that any Islay fan could easily fall in love with its power and complexity. It was the other barrel, however, sitting in the corner of the warehouse that brought out the whisky geeks in David and me. We had heard rumors that Kilchoman was sitting on a small batch of sherry-finished 100% Islay single malt, their ultra-delicious and incredibly-limited whisky made from a small crop of barley grown and malted entirely at the distillery. It's no secret that the rest of Islay buys their barley from Diageo's Port Ellen malting facility, but circumventing that route is difficult, not to mention costly. Is it worth it however? The answer to that question is a resounding "YES!" The spice on Kilchoman's all-Islay whisky is totally different from the standard make - think blanco tequila meets smoky mezcal, with lots of citrus. When you add a sherry barrel to that equation the spice turns to cinnamon red hots, the fruit tropical and hedonistic, the peat to a sweet and vibrant tang. At cask strength, the malt overwhelms the palate, almost like a giant party in your mouth. We had to push hard for this cask, but when you see two young buyers jumping up and down and hugging each other in your warehouse after tasting it, it's probably hard to say "no."
David Driscoll, K&L Wines
Sherry finished single malt bottled from cask 321/2008 on March 9th of 2012. Distilled on March 7th of 2008.
Yours Truly
The Distillery: Kilchoman
| Established: 2005 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: Rockside Farm, Bruichladdich, Isle of Islay, Scotland, PA49 7UT |
| → website |
Scotland"s potentially most traditional distillery made a bit of an an odd start. Instead of employing the traditional distillery cat they went for a distillery pig - Lucy. Well, Anthony seems confident in Lucy"s pest control abilities ;-) During the summer of 2004 the traditional farm buildings at Rockside Farm (near Machir Bay) were being converted into a visitor centre and the first distillery buildings. Two stainless steel washbacks arived in February 2005 and the stills (a 2,000 liter spirit still with a long narrow neck and a 3,000 liter wash still) were installed in February 2005. They are directly heated. The first spirit was scheduled to flow on June 2, 2005 during the Islay festival but they didn"t make that date. Anthony DID manage to give some of the maniacs a tour of the facilities though - and Olivier"s passionate arguments against industrial yeast may have helped convince Anthony to avoid those. You can read all about our adventures at Kilchoman in entry #240 in my Liquid Log. The first Kilchoman spirit finally flowed from the stills in November 2005.
Kilchoman will initially be in production for 28 weeks of the year. Fresh bourbon and refill barrels form the base of the maturation programme, but other casks (sherry, port, rum and wine) may be used as well. Well, that"s a break with "tradition" I could certainly live with... The first mature Kilchoman whisky is still a few years away, but fortunately for visitors to Islay the visitor centre is already finished. It tells the story of farm distilling on Islay in the 18th and 19th century from its illicit beginnings to legislation. The shop sells a range of Kilchoman merchandise including miniature bottles of Kilchoman "New Spirit" as well as a range of fresh and smoked venison and beef from the Islay Fine Food Co. The café serves fabulous home made soups - I recall some especially fine pumpkin or potato soup...
Kilchoman was the first new distillery to be built on Islay for well over a century. The driving force behind Kilchoman is Anthony Wills and he dreams of building the smallest and most traditional distillery in Scotland, or at least on Islay. Kilchoman will be one of the few distilleries that will be able to claim that every step of the production process is carried out on site. Barley (Optic and Chalice) will be grown at Rockside Farm and malted on Kilchoman"s malt floor. The spirit will be produced, matured and bottled on site and everything produced at the distillery will be bottled as single malt whisky. The whisky won"t be chill filtered or coloured and will be reduced to a standard bottling strength of 50% using Islay water.
from Malt Madness