THE WHISKY CONNOISSEUR
BY DAVID GREEN, THE RED FOX
It has been a couple of months since I reviewed a whisky
here, so this one needs to be something special and a little
different. Well drum roll please... and welcome Kilchoman
(pronounced Kil-ho-man) established in 2005, this is one of
the smallest distilleries in Scotland.
Based on a farm on the rugged west coast of Islay, which as
you might already know happens to be my favourite region for
whisky.
This was the first distillery to be built on the island for 125
years and has quickly become part of Islay’s whisky landscape
with a range of critically acclaimed releases and awards.
Kilchoman is soon to be knocked off the perch as the new kid
on the block when the brand new ‘Ardnahoe’ opens in 2018
becoming Islay’s ninth operational distillery. Kilchoman, is
unique - as it truly is Islay’s farm distillery - from barley to
bottling the whole process takes place on the farm.
For me, Kilchoman, displays all that is great about the grass-
roots traditions of Scotch whisky distilling that we should all
be supporting and encouraging.
Everything at the distillery is very hands-on and the malting is
no different. Kilchoman is one of only six distilleries to carry
out traditional floor malting’s (3 of the six are Islay based).
Floor malting is the historic technique of preparing barley for
fermentation; turning it into malted barley.
Two tonnes of barley is spread over the malt floor by the team,
this then sprouts roots and begins to germinate over a period
of 5-6 days. This is closely monitored and regularly raked and
turned to ensure an even germination across the whole floor.
The traditional floor malting’s is extremely labour intensive
with a lot of time and energy spent on this part of the process.
As well as being one of only a handful of distilleries still
practicing floor malting, barley is also grown on the farm,
making Kilchoman the only distillery to complete all parts of
the whisky making process on site. Kilchoman is one of the
smallest distilleries in Scotland with an annual production of
approximately 120,000 litres of alcohol.
Anthony Wills, the founder and managing director, ran his
own independent single cask bottling company for 8 years
when he came up with the idea of building the ultimate farm
distillery – ‘taking whisky back to its roots’. Islay is very fertile
and therefore, growing barley is no problem. It also has plenty
of water and peat for drying the malt.
Kilchoman produce a range of single malt whiskies all non-
chill filtered and natural in colour. They currently have 10
expressions in the range; Machir Bay (named after the most
spectacular beach on Islay) is the flagship of range and it uses a
combination of ex-bourbon barrels and Oloroso sherry butts.
First launched in 2012 when it won the prestigious IWSC 2012
Gold Award and more recently in 2016, it was awarded best
Islay Single Malt at the IWC. Other expressions have included
Port, Sauternes and Maderia casks to name a few, but the stand
out expression for me is the 100% Islay.
First launched in 2010, a new edition of the 100% Islay has
been released every year since, with the latest, 7th edition filled
into ex-Buffalo Trace bourbon barrels in 2010 and bottled in
2017.
All parts of the production process have taken place at the
distillery and they are rightly proud to claim to be the only
Islay distillery distilling single malt from barley both grown
and malted on Islay. Bottled at 50% ABV and peated to a lower
level to that of other releases. This whisky has a light, fresh feel
to it, the peat is only very faint. You get citrus and lemon notes
coming through with a very soft and gentle peat smoke and a
long smooth finish. This is my stand out whisky for this year
so far.
Available at The Red Fox or grab a bottle for £53.48 at
www.masterofmalt.com
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