Kilchoman Distillery, Islay: The Farm Distillery

Overview

Kilchoman is Islay’s farm distillery — a true field-to-glass operation on Rockside Farm out on the remote Rinns, where the barley is grown, malted, distilled, matured and bottled all on the same ground. When it opened it was the first new distillery on Islay in some 124 years, and it has since become one of the most admired small distilleries in Scotland, making a fresh, fruity, coastal peated malt.

The history

Kilchoman was founded in 2005 by Anthony Wills, and the first spirit ran that year — the first legal distilling on this part of Islay for well over a century. It remains independent and family-run, which on an island where most distilleries belong to global drinks groups is itself notable. Built from scratch as a small farm distillery, it deliberately revived the old Islay tradition of growing and malting barley on site, and its 100% Islay bottlings are made entirely from grain grown in its own fields.

The water & the land

Kilchoman’s water comes from the Allt Gleann Osamail burn, running off hill springs through the peat bogs of the Rinns — and, uniquely for a modern distillery, a real proportion of its peat and barley comes from the farm and the island itself.

As a 21st-century farm venture, Kilchoman has no clan lineage. But it sits close to Kilchoman church and its famous medieval carved cross, in a corner of Islay steeped in the island’s Gaelic and ecclesiastical past — the world of Clan Donald and the Lords of the Isles that underlies the whole island, later the Campbell estate.

How it’s made

Kilchoman is the smallest working distillery on Islay, running just two wash and two spirit stills to a capacity of around 500,000 litres a year — and it is the only distillery on the island doing every stage itself: growing barley on its own Rockside Farm (since 2015), floor-malting it, distilling, maturing and bottling, all on site. Its own floor-malted barley is peated to around 20ppm, blended with malt from Port Ellen Maltings peated to about 50ppm, giving a lighter, farmier smoke than its Kildalton neighbours. Casks are mainly ex-bourbon (from Buffalo Trace until 2023, now Breckenridge in Colorado), with a sherry-cask range alongside.

Visiting

Kilchoman has a visitor centre, café and shop, and runs excellent “field-to-glass” tours that walk you through the whole cycle from the barley field to the cask — recent pricing has run from around £10 for the Classic Tour up to £35 for a Limited Edition tasting and tour (these may well have risen since — always confirm current prices on the website) — book ahead. It opens daily in season; check the website. Its remote setting on the Rinns makes it one of the most atmospheric visits on the island.

Nearby & more whisky

• Also on the Rinns: Bruichladdich
• Islay’s oldest: Bowmore
• Planning a day of it? Our Islay Whisky Trail covers Bowmore, the Rinns and Kilchoman together.
• The whole picture: Scotch whisky — regions, distilleries & the oldest of all

Sources

• Kilchoman distillery — Wikipedia.
• Kilchoman Distillery; Scotchwhisky.com Whiskypedia.