The Kilchoman distillery is set into beautiful farmland and nature; this is the only distillery not located right at the ocean, and we drive by Loch Gorm and several fields of barley with Kilchoman signs that identify the variety grown there. It’s a narrow but beautiful road, and the weather is summery wonderful.
We arrive at the parking lot and see a big meadow with picnic tables, sheep pastures beyond, and a welcoming sign points us to the visitor’s centre and café. The shop is huge, new, airy and bright, a bar on one wall, cash registers along another, the third wall is taken up by retail displays of a variety of local products (only a small portion of the shop is dedicated to Kilchoman whisky and merchandise), and in the back are the tasting rooms behind glass walls. A young woman greets us and helps to reserve a table for lunch in the café… apparently, it could get full by the time our tour is over. She tells us that she will collect us for the start of the tour, for which we are the only participants—lucky us, we get a private tour!
It starts in the tasting room where our guide settles us at a large table, and because it’s just the two of us, we get to interact and have more of a conversation than a presentation, which is fantastic. She asks us if we know Kilchoman and how we’ve experienced them so far before telling us about the history and current leadership and business model of the distillery. Kilchoman is special in the sense that they do everything themselves, from growing their own barley all the way to bottling the whisky on their own premises. I love that concept.
Bria (her name is Welsh and I do not know how to spell it, but this is how she pronounces her name for us with a rolling ‘R’) also shows us the four whisky bottlings we get to sample later after the tour, and we have a look at the Glencairn glass on a lanyard that we get to take home after using it on the tour for samplings. We gear up with the lanyard around the neck and the glass hanging in front of the chest.
The first stop is the malting floor, which is empty and cleanly swept today. Bria explains that the warm weather makes the malting process faster, so they had to clear the floor a day early. We can see the silo where the barley arrives on the floor and is released into a bin on wheels for spreading it on the floor. The grain is wetted and spread out by hand with paddles on sticks, a very physical job. It needs to be turned and spread out again a few times, so the grains don’t get so hot that the sprouts die in the process of malting. In case you don’t know, the process of malting is actually the sprouting of the grains, which makes the barley sugar more accessible for the fermentation. Bria explains that different varieties of barley are used for different spirit expressions. Kilchoman malts their own barley, but they also buy additional barley because they cannot farm enough to feed all of their production. They have one bottling, Kilchoman 100% Islay, that contains only barley they’ve farmed, harvested and malted themselves; our tour includes a dram of this whisky on the malting floor, which would have been lovely, but we opt again for the drivers drams.
Moving on from the malting floor, we have a look at the kiln; in front of the door are a few half barrels filled with peat, and Brrria gives me a piece to feel and smell. It’s very dry and smells earthy. She doesn’t open the kiln hatch for us, but since the malting floor is empty, there wouldn’t be a fire anyway. We learn that Kilchoman uses mostly peat from nearby Loch Gorm, harvested by hand with a narrow spade-like tool. Only 3-5 pieces of peat are used to smoke the entire malting floor.
Next, we go to the still house. After seeing the mill, we peek into a large container with grist, which will be moved to the mash tun to release the barley sugars by steeping it three times. The wort goes into the wash backs where yeast is added for the fermentation. I get to try the wash, and I am surprised (after the Bruichladdich tour guide told us how disgusting theirs is) that it doesn’t taste bad at all, quite sour and yeasty yet with a sweet undertone.
The wash is distilled in the first pot still, then distilled again in the spirit still. We watch a guy monitoring the stills as 100% Islay spirit is made, and a highlight of the tour is that we get to try the “fresh make spirit”. My friend gets his sample poured right out of the spirit safe into his lanyard glass, but as the designated driver, I only get some poured over my hands to smell, and I greedily lick off my hands whatever liquid I can for a taste. It’s sweet and not at all spirity… I love it! Bria promises that she will get a small sample for me to take home, although that is usually not done. No wonder Kilchoman whisky is so good if the distillate itself is already this tasty. The sweetness of it married with the peat smoke is a perfect match, and if matured in quality casks, there is no chance it could be anything but divine.
The dunnage warehouse is full of casks, and we snoop around to see if we can find anything special that might be coming out in future, but the casks are marked only with the year and a nondescript number. It smells amazing here, though, and I am in heaven as I inhale the angel’s share.
Back at the tasting room in the visitor’s centre, we debrief the tour, chat a little and rave about the experience before Bria tells us about each of the four special edition bottlings we get to sample; we have a Casado finish, the Loch Gorm 2023, a Fino cask matured and a Calvados finish. We’ll take our samples home, including the 100% Islay and my fresh make spirit sample, and enjoy them at a much more leisurely pace than would be possible here. My favourite is the 100% Islay, but I like the two sherry matured ones, Loch Gorm and Fino, as well. While it’s hard to not like any Kilchoman, I decide that I generally don’t favour wine finished whisky; of course, that does not include fortified wines like port, sherry, or madeira. And the fresh make spirit was just a very special experience that does not last long in my glass; it’s so easy to drink even at the high alcohol content. What an experience!
After we say goodbye to Bria, I spend some time outside on the picnic meadow, enjoying the pond and looking at sheep, while my friend is having a sample at the bar. Then, we have lunch at the café, which is actually very good; a pleasant surprise since we have not had any food in Scotland that we really liked so far, with the sole exception of some great pizza.
It’s hard to leave the distillery behind—it’s been such a great experience. On recommendation of strangers we met on the street of Portnahaven as well as Bria, we drive to Machir Bay beach. It’s a very short hike from the parking area to get to the wide and sandy beach with beautiful island and ocean views, very tranquil within nature. I’m sure a sunset would be spectacular here, alas, I’m not keen on driving in the dark on these roads and with the steering wheel on the wrong side… We have a lovely sunset at our Portnahaven bay as well.
After crossing the small stream of ocean water a second time to get back to the car, we meet a younger couple and chat a little, all four of us raving about how special it is on this island. They live in Edinburgh and strongly encourage us to go visit the city after leaving the island.
Overall, Kilchoman has been my favourite distillery on the Isle of Islay, both for the experience and also for the whisky. A fantastic day.
Nice to see the areas where the work is done!
C