Kilchoman Sanaig

Kilchoman was the first distillery to be built on Islay in over 124 years. Founded in 2005, Kilchoman is Islay’s only farm distillery, producing Scotland’s only Single Farm Single Malt.

The parish of Kilchoman is home to some of Islay’s most fertile ground. In the fields surrounding the distillery, Kilchoman grow 200 tons of barley each year. Planting in Spring once Islay’s 50,000 geese have migrated, the Kilchoman team care for the barley over the summer months before harvesting in early September. Harvest time represents the start of the whisky-making process which sees Kilchoman grown barley malted, distilled, matured and bottled at the distillery, eventually becoming Islay’s only Single Farm Single Malt Scotch Whisky over 1130 days later.

Kilchoman is one of only 7 distilleries still practicing traditional floor malting in Scotland, a process which Scotland’s other 100+ distilleries have outsourced with the arrival of commercial distilling. The process involves soaking the barley in water before it is laid on a concrete floor and regularly turned by hand. This triggers the barley to germinate, allowing for the conversion of starch to fermentable sugars and alcohol. The labour intensive nature of floor malting is a significant factor in its demise, though it remains at the heart of the Kilchoman 100% Islay philosophy.

Kilchoman has the smallest stills on Islay and some of the smallest in Scotland, create unmatched purity of spirit. Their distinct size and shape along with the Kilchoman spirit still reflux bulb create unparalleled levels of reflux and copper contact, allowing for the marriage of earthy, maritime peat smoke and the light, clean floral citrus which characterises Kilchoman single malt. As with all stages of production at Kilchoman, the stills are carefully controlled by hand.