Husband-and-wife-owned Islay distillers Kilchoman release two new Cask Explorations editions
With so many new distilleries popping up across Scotland, Kilchoman feel like part of the peaty furniture.
In fact, the distillery, founded by husband-and-wife team Anthony and Kathy Wills is less than 20 years old – slightly longer if you include the building works started in 2001 – but, in those two decades, they’ve achieved a considerable amount.
They were the first new Islay distillery in over 124 years, and they remain Islay’s only Single Farm Single Malt Scotch Whisky. Oh, and they’ve brought their three sons into the business.
For 2023, Kilchoman have just released two of their experimental editions, under the Cask Explorations tag, from Cognac and Fino casks. It’s their second Fino edition, but their first cognac-aged single-malt.
The Fino promises Kilchoman’s typical fruit character and subtle peat smoke, alongside rich toffee notes from the Fino Sherry casks, while the Cognac Cask Matured offers rich, herbaceous sweet spice, married to the maritime peat smoke lent by Kilchoman’s coastal location.
Both are available now, with a RRP of £86.95. More details can be found on the Kilchoman website or over at Master of Malt.
Neil Davey
Neil Davey is a freelance writer specialising in things you can do sitting down, but mostly eating, drinking, travelling and interviewing the odd famous person. The author of The Bluffer's Guide To Chocolate, Neil also writes for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Metro, Delicious Magazine, Sainsbury's Magazine, Escapism, Foodism and Hello!. Thanks to a karaoke machine in Montana, he once told a billionaire that he loved his sweet little pussycat nose and sang I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For with a Hollywood star, in the space of 15 minutes. He now generally stays away from karaoke machines in Montana.