Kilchoman is the first distillery to be built on island of Islay in Scotland for 124 years and was completed just over three years ago. Three years is the magic number of years for Scotch lovers, as Scotch has to be matured three years before it can be called Scotch. For this reason my wife and I thought it would be a great stop during our visit to Islay.
The Kilchoman distiller is very unassuming. After visiting Ardbeg earlier in the day with a drive by Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Bowmore which are all composed of large white buildings, Kilchoman appeared to be something else altogether. In fact, it falls well into the history on Islay as the distillery is a converted farm (see the slideshow below).
One of Kilchoman's claims to fame is that they have their own malting floor. On Islay only Kilchoman and Bowmore malt their own barley these days. Ardbeg, known for their heavily malted barleys, purchases their barley premalted and have it brought in from Port Ellen, for instance. Kilchoman, however, had barley laid out during our visit in one of the buildings, in the next we found the stills and in yet another warehouse we found the maturing Scotch.
The distilleries first release of 8300 bottles sold out quickly, however we were on Islay on the day of the 2nd release on Nov. 30th (St. Andrew's Day) and stopped into the visitor's center to get our share of the new lot. There were some mini-bottles of the inaugural release so we grabbed 2, one to drink and one to hold. The same is true for the 2nd release, 2009 Autumn Release, although we were able to get our hands on the 700ml bottles. While in the visitor's center we watched enviously as another customer purchased a case (if only US customs was more lenient).
If you haven't tried a younger Scotch yet I'd recommend planning on it. The Kilchoman inaugural release was well received by a number of critics, so I assumed, correctly or not, that the 2nd release would not be much different. While reluctant to open the small 1st release bottles we acquired, one bottle of the 2nd release is now fully digested as of last night.
The 2009 Autumn Release is a light honey in color, although I have to admit it is darker than I would have expected for such a young Scotch. The nose is somewhat reminiscent of the wonderful shortbread cookies of Scotland with a hint of Sherry.
This is not a mellow Scotch. In fact it has a very sharp and tangy alcoholic bite. The peat sits on top of the flavor. It reminds me of the unmatured spirit we sampled at the Oban distillery, which was also quite tasty. The finish is a lingering heavy liquid mass of peppers which hangs around for a few minutes.
I still struggle with peat to some degree. In fact, when I first opened the Kilchoman for a sample it was disappointing as it didn't seem to have much character other than what the peat brought to it. But because Scotch can be fickle if left untouched I sampled it again a few days later (many lose their body and flavor after opening if left to stand for too long - I recommend finishing your open bottles withing 30 days of them being opened). The second sampling was pure joy. The flavor seemed to have come to the fore transforming it from a seemingly quaint peated Scotch into something quite complex. Whether or not I can attribute this to exposing the spirit to some oxygen or simply a change in my own palette is hard to say, but I have found with heavily peated Scotches generally a small amount of decanting seems to really open them up.
We finished up our visit to the distillery in their cafe, both of us enjoying the Cullen Skink (see photo) which was just 
fantastic (after it absorbed the larger than usual amounts of salt applied to it). The day was far from over however, as we visited the Bruichladdich distillery next where we also sampled some incredible Scotch. Stay tuned for more on the Bruichladdich visit.
Unfortunately, Kilchoman is not shipping any of their stock to the USA. It may be a number of years before they begin producing the 750ml bottles for export to the USA (see my article on this issue - The problem with 750 ml bottling regulations in the USA).
This is one of the very few bottles of Scotch I will be holding to see if it increases in value. Unfortunately it is not from the Inaugural Release, but it will soon be a rare Scotch from Islay so may increase in value. Please stay tuned to hear more about Scotch collecting - an area I am just dipping my toe into.
It is great to see new distilleries come online. Hopefully Kilchoman will continue to put out a quality product for many years to come. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping to see some of what they produce shipped over here to the USA at some point as well.
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