Kilchoman Distillery
Kilchoman. Islay’s only farm distillery. Established by the Wills family in 2005, this year marks their 20th year distilling on Islay.
Kilchoman feels very different from the craggy landscape that you can become accustomed to at the island’s coastal distilleries. The farm sits in around 2,300 acres, of which the most fertile ground is reserved for the 400 acres of barley that are grown each year. Coming down the approach road flanked by barley on all sides is quite the sight.
These 400 acres are sown each Spring and harvested around early September. Whilst not providing enough barley for 100% of production, the harvest allows Kilchoman to produce an 100% Islay barley range. This means they can uniquely claim to have grown, malted, distilled, matured and bottled on site.
Traditional floor maltings. Always a joy to see.
It really does feel like you are on a working farm when visiting the distillery. There’s a hubub of agricultural activity all around. Tractors rolling by in distant fields, draff being discarded into trailers, the air filled with that distinctive malty aroma…
Our tour guide Craig is fantastic. Very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. He keeps things fun and informative and does a great job including and engaging with some very young members of the group.
Alongside the maltings another highlight is getting to see an active kiln at a distillery. While maybe not the most visually exciting, it’s a great way to feel a connection to the traditional malting process.
Kilchoman doubled its production capacity in 2020 by effectively building a mirror image of its existing set up with a gable end extension of the existing production building. This means it now runs two 1.2 tonne mash tuns, 12 washbacks and four stills. They also created a new visitor centre within previous stable buildings which makes for a very generous space complete with a cafe, bar and tasting room.
There’s a reassuring level of hands-on practicality that comes through in each stage of the process giving a tangible sense of an authentic farm to bottle ethos.
100% of Kilchoman is filled and matured on-site. This shouldn’t feel like a big deal but in today’s whisky landscape it’s worth remarking on. All the warehouses are dunnage, again adding extra cost and labour to utilise but staying true to Kilchoman’s commitment to achieving quality through traditional means.
Once the tour concluded we spent a while wandering around the surrounding fields. On a beautiful August day it was quite hypnotic watching the barley swaying in the gentle breeze.
Nowadays with whisky it’s quite easy to feel a bit of a disconnect from the raw materials that go into our drink. You don’t necessarily picture the farmer out in the field, the cattle and wildlife, the agricultural coming and going of a working farm. After all this is where whisky originated from. A farming by-product.
At Kilchoman you can’t escape these reminders of the past and it’s glorious. It’s a really impressive set up and a must visit when on Islay we reckon. With further planned expansion in the near future we look forward to enjoying 100% Islay whisky from Islay’s only single farm distillery for many years to come.
One of Kilchoman’s many fields of barley almost ready for harvest. A most pleasing sight.