‘Le Phoenix’ supplies rare wine casks to the Kilchoman distillery

Yesterday, 25 June 2024, Kilchoman’s Production Director, Robin Bignal, collected some very special casks for the Kilchoman distillery in Port Ellen. Four casks of the world-famous Vouvray wine from France, which were made available to the distillery by ‘Les Amis du Cask’. ‘The Friends of the Cask’ are a group of retirees who realised their passion for single cask bottlings in 2018 by founding a company to import and market very special whiskies. As they hail from the renowned wine-growing village of Vouvray – the most significant appellation for Chenin Blanc in the Loire Valley – they have also, on occasion, supplied Scottish distilleries with wine casks from the region. This met with great interest at Kilchoman, as Anthony Wills is always on the lookout for special casks and prefers direct contact with individual wineries.

The four casks for Kilchoman consist of two each from the wineries Laurent Kraft and Fabrice Maillet. These were not simply delivered by a haulage company; instead, ‘Les Amis du Cask’ managed to arrange for the famous sailing ship ‘Le Phoenix’ – known from numerous film and television productions, from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ to ‘Outlander’ – to take the casks on board during a voyage to Northern Ireland and make a stopover on Islay.

Over the coming weeks, the four casks are to be used at Kilchoman for the finishing of ex-bourbon casks. Two of the casks will then be bottled for “Les Amis du Cask”, whilst the other two will remain at Kilchoman’s disposal.

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