Out on the farm
FOR such a small island, Islay certainly has quite a number of Scotch distilleries. There are eight in total on the island, of which Kilchoman (pronounced Kil-ho-men), is the youngest. Established in December 2005, it is also one of the smallest whisky distilleries in Scotland.
“We only make about 150,000 litres a year. The next biggest makes 1.3 million litres, and the biggest of all makes about 6 million litres a year. What we do in a year, they can do in five days, so we’re pretty much at the other end of the scale!” said Peter Wills, Kilchoman brand ambassador and son of distillery founder Anthony Wills.
According to Wills, his father used to run his own independent single cask bottling company for eight years before he took the plunge to build his own distillery. With eight established distilleries already on Islay, he knew he needed to do something different to stand out.
“My dad’s idea was to have a small-scale farm distillery; the other seven are big ones owned by big companies, so we are the only independent one left at the moment,” he said. But what is a “farm distillery”? “We call ourselves that because we still a farm. We grow barley and have cattle, but we’ve turned the cattle sheds into a visitor’s centre, and we converted the old farm building into a distillery,” he said. “Going back in the history of Islay, there would have been 24 to 30 of these sort of small distilleries – farmers who would grow the barley, malt it, peat it, distil it and bottle it by themselves. So that was the idea of Kilchoman – to do everything on site, as it was done traditionally.”
Being the first new distillery on Islay in 125 years also made it easier for Kilchoman to stand out, though he was not sure why it took so long. “Maybe people thought seven distilleries on Islay was enough!” he said with a laugh, adding that building a whisky distillery isn’t as easy as building a gin or vodka distillery, which can sell their products immediately. “Whisky needs a lot more investment and time – you need to build the brand, and wait three years (for the whisky to mature so that it can legally be called Scotch whisky).”
Although the fact that Wills’ mother is from Islay played a big part in his father choosing to build Kilchoman on Islay, it was not the only factor.
“Islay and Speyside are probably the two best known regions for Scotch whisky worldwide. Speyside has 45 distilleries, but Islay only has seven, so it made sense to build ours there as well,” Wills said.
The hardest part of starting the distillery was the financial part, according to Wills, while trying to get the taste and flavours right was another important factor.
“We knew the type of whisky we wanted to have, but we didn’t know how to get there,” he said.
“Fortunately, we had Dr Jim Swan (a whisky expert who also developed Taiwan’s Kavalan Whisky) to help us choose the shape and size of the stills, the type of casks, and so on. But after that, it is just about trying to make the best whisky you can and trying to get through eight years, 10 years, to the point when you can, hopefully, have a final product.”
Wills still remembers the first drop of spirit coming off the stills at Kilchoman. “I was on my school holidays, and working at the distillery part-time. We had only finished building the distillery in December 2005, and at the time we only filled like, ten casks. We were nervous about it because it’s never an exact science – you can make it, shape it and make sure you make a light fruity spirit, but you never known how it’ll taste in the end. But fortunately, we liked it from the start!” he said.
Well, it’s been 10 years since then, and although they have yet to release a bottling with an age statement (Wills states that they might never ever do one), they do have an established range of expressions they can be proud of, three of which we got to try at a special tasting at The Whisky Bar in Changkat Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur.
Their core expression is the Kilchoman Machir Bay (46% ABV), which was first launched in 2012, and won a prestigious IWSC Gold Award that year. Named after a “picturesque sandy beach overlooked by the Kilchoman Church just half a mile from the distillery”, it is matured in both bourbon barrels and Sherry casks, which gives it a great balance of fruit, vanilla, and a slight hint of peat.
“It’s been through an eight-week Oloroso sherry finish, so you can get a lot of sherry finish to this whisky. We still wanted the bourbon to be the main character of the distillery, but we wanted to add some influence from the sherry, which adds a bit of extra power to the whisky,” he said, adding that different expressions of the whisky have since been released in 2013 and 2014, each with its own unique characteristics.
Named after a “dark peaty loch” that the distillery overlooks, the dark colours of the only fully ex-sherry cask matured release in their range, the Kilchoman Loch Gorm was my favourite of the three whiskies, with a nice balance between sherry sweetness and peaty notes.
“It’s heavier and richer, and the sherry helps to soften the smoke. You can get a lot more rich caramel sweetness here, and it fills the mouth a bit more, and you’re left with the sweetness more than the smoke. We try to avoid too much of a sherry influence, so we bottle this quite young,” he said.
Bottled at a strong 50% ABV, the Kilchoman 100% Islay is made from barley that is grown and malted on the farm. “We grow, malt, and peat it ourselves. It’s only got a little bit of peat – it’s the lightest we have. It’s all matured in bourbon casks from Buffalo Trace, so you don’t get too much smoke – you still get some of the citrus notes from our new make spirit coming through because it’s still quite young, and right at the end, you get some light smoke finish,” he said. “At four years old, it’s not the finished article yet, so we’re still trying to develop and make it better. We’re most proud about this whisky because it’s made the way it used to be in the past.”
Kilchoman whiskies are available at Single And Available retail stores in Bangsar Shopping Centre and Mercato, Pavilion KL.