This Is the Most Underrated Whisky on Islay

"We had a plan [to only use Islay barley], but as we grew, we moved beyond being able to do that,"

"We do bring in barley from mainland Scotland, but we keep it separate in production. So we have a style of whisky where it's all from the farm and then a separate style from the barley we buy."

"We use really heavily-peated malt,"

"But through our production, things change. We have really small stills. We've got a really long fermentation."

Kilchoman was founded in 2005 and became the first new distillery on Islay in more than 124 years, operating a farm-to-bottle model that grows, malts, distills, matures and bottles barley on a single farm. The family-run distillery expanded from five to 50 employees and increased production capacity from 100,000 to 600,000 liters while exporting to around 70 countries and quadrupling barley production. Growth required sourcing barley from mainland Scotland for some releases while keeping Islay-grown barley separate, creating distinct farm-only and purchased-barley lines. The whisky uses heavily peated malt (~50 PPM), small stills and long fermentation to produce smoky but not extreme flavors.

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