Timeline 2024
25 March: Launch of the Kilchoman Batch Strength Release
On 25 March 2024, a new worldwide available Kilchoman bottling – the Batch Strength Release – was officially launched. Kilchoman’s founder, Anthony Wills, had spoken on several occasions in the past about his vision of making a Cask Strength Kilchoman bottling permanently available to whisky enthusiasts. These plans have now been realised in the form of the Batch Strength Release, Kilchoman’s third General Release.
Like all major bottlings, this release is bottled in batches; however, in this case, after the individual casks have been blended, the whisky is not diluted to 46% or 50%, but is consistently adjusted to 57% alcohol by volume through the addition of a minimal amount of water. Consequently, although it may seem somewhat unusual, Kilchoman therefore does not refer to the bottling as a Cask Strength but as a Batch Strength Release.
The batches comprise approximately 20 per cent charred wine casks (initially STR casks, but possibly also standard red wine casks in future), approximately 10–15 per cent sherry casks and 65–70 per cent ex-bourbon casks.
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26 March – 30 May 2024: Kilchoman European Tour 2024
In 2024, Kilchoman once again organised a promotional tour across Europe. Focused entirely on the new Batch Strength Release, it was a tour of superlatives: in 10 weeks, the team visited no fewer than 20 countries and covered a distance of 10,000 kilometres. The tour began on 26 March in Switzerland and concluded on 30 May at the Open Day of the Fèis Ìle 2024 on Islay.
The events in each country were once again organised by various members of the Kilchoman marketing and sales team. As in 2023, this involved a mix of informal afternoon shop events and larger tasting sessions in the evening. And, as in 2023, there were live links to the production team on Islay.
A special tour bottling of the new release was sold exclusively at the tour stops.
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22 April 2024: Loch Gorm 2024 released
On 22 April 2024, Kilchoman released a new Loch Gorm bottling, once again as the first limited release of the year. The range, named after the loch situated near the distillery, is, as is well known, matured exclusively in Oloroso sherry casks.
For the 2024 edition, Kilchoman Founder Anthony Wills and Production Director Robin Bignal selected 23 Oloroso sherry butts (17 first-fill and 6 refill casks) from 2014. As is always the case with Kilchoman, the 500-litre sherry butts came from the Bodega José y Miguel Martín and were filled with spirit distilled from barley malt with a phenol content of 50 ppm. Diluted to 46% ABV, the 23 casks yielded approximately 18,000 bottles.
Anthony Wills and Robin Bignal stated that, as always, their aim in selecting the casks was to create a whisky that, despite its strong sherry notes, clearly exhibits a Kilchoman character. For the 2024 release, they selected predominantly first-fill casks; at 9 years old, the average age was slightly higher than in 2023, when 22 butts from the years 2013–2015 had been used.
Kilchoman Founder Anthony Wills wrote: “Loch Gorm has often been our most sought after limited edition and I don’t see that changing in 2024. Distilled in 2014, these sherry butts have given this year’s release an abundance of rich spices and toffee notes. A great example of peat and sherry working in harmony together.”
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23 May 2024: Sauternes Cask Matured 2024 Edition released
Following an initial Sauternes Cask Matured Limited Release in 2016 and a Sauternes Cask Finish Release in 2018, Kilchoman released the third Sauternes bottling in its series of annual wine cask maturations at the end of May 2024. As is well known, the Kilchoman distillery has been releasing one or two Limited Edition bottlings a year since 2014, which have been matured (or, less commonly, finished) in various wine casks.
Kilchoman’s founder and Master Blender, Anthony Wills, selected both first-fill and second-fill Sauternes wine casks from the years 2017 and 2018 for this release (the exact ratio was stated as 22 per cent first-fill and 78 per cent second-fill casks), which was intended to result in a perfect balance between the influence of the Sauternes casks and the typical character of the Kilchoman distillery.
The second-fill Sauternes casks used for the 2024 release were, for the most part, the finishing casks from the 2018 Sauternes Cask Finish Limited Release. As it turned out, using Sauternes casks as finishing casks for several months is the ideal preparation for subsequent full maturation. During the short finishing period – which usually lasts several months – much of the dominant Sauternes influence is extracted, leaving casks that still impart a distinct Sauternes character to the whisky maturing within them, without compromising on structure or balance.
During the 2024 Kilchoman marketing tour across 20 European countries, visitors were able to sample the Sauternes Cask Edition (here even undiluted at 58% ABV) in advance. The release was also included as a sample in the tasting pack for the online live tasting ‘Exploring New and Upcoming Releases’ with Anthony & Peter Wills, taking place on 30 May 2024.
“After a six-year absence, the Sauternes Cask Matured Kilchoman is back! The previous edition was a Sauternes finish, now it’s time for a return to the full power that complete maturation in these wine casks brings. Waves of sweet fruits and butterscotch balanced with our Islay peat smoke, a delicious dram.” Anthony Wills, Kilchoman Founder.
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30 May 2024: Kilchoman Open Day at Fèis Ìle 2024
The Kilchoman Open Day at the Islay Festival Fèis Ìle 2024 took place on Thursday 30 May. On the day, visitors to the distillery were once again treated to an extensive programme – the tried-and-tested mix of special distillery and farm tours, masterclass tastings and numerous other events that has been a favourite for years. In addition, a new highlight of the programme, Machir Bay Sunset Drams, took place on Tuesday 28 May: a special whisky tasting on the beach at Machir Bay at sunset.
On Open Day, visitors were able to tour all the main production areas and have in-depth conversations with staff there. The popular ‘Be a Bottler’ activity offered the chance to bottle their own personalised bottle of a Distillery Exclusive Single Cask Release.
Throughout the day, there was live music from Rhuval, Ceol an Aire and the Kilchoman Distillery Isle of Islay Pipe Band. There were plenty of prizes to be won in games of skill. The Whisky Bar offered a selection of past and current bottlings from Kilchoman Limited Editions, Comraich Batches and Single Casks, whilst the cocktail bar served a range of different whisky cocktails. A BBQ featuring locally sourced meat, light bites from the salad bar, tea, coffee and homemade cakes from the café left nothing to be desired in terms of food. And, of course, visitors could stock up on all Kilchoman branded merchandise in the distillery shop.
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The Fèis Ìle special release, eagerly anticipated as always, was a vatting of two bourbon barrels from 2011. The whisky was distilled from barley grown on Kilchoman’s own fields and subsequently left unpeated. This was one of those rare opportunities to sample an “unpeated” Kilchoman.
The 482 bottles – limited to one per person – were sold to visitors at the Kilchoman Open Day for £110 and sold out within a short time.
For Kilchoman fans who were unable to attend the festival in person, the distillery organised two different online tastings this time, in addition to numerous live broadcasts throughout the day. The tasting with Emma McHarrie and James Wills, held at 11:00 Islay time, focused on the theme of peat: “The Impact of Peat: From Unpeated to Heavily Peated”, whilst the online tasting with Anthony and Peter Wills at 2.00 pm Islay time focused on new Kilchoman bottlings: “Exploring New and Upcoming Releases”.
The tasting packs had been available in advance for £22.90 each plus VAT and postage from the distillery’s online shop.
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21 August 2024: Private Cask Offer
In August 2024, Kilchoman announced that, for the first time in a long while, it would be offering a limited number of private casks exclusively to Kilchoman Club members.
In the distillery’s early years, Kilchoman had sold numerous freshly filled casks to private individuals in order to raise much-needed capital to run the distillery. This Private Cask Programme was discontinued in 2007; indeed, in the years that followed, Kilchoman even endeavoured to buy back as many of these casks as possible in order to replenish, to some extent, the low stock of casks from the early years.
With the exception of 15 casks, which were auctioned off in 2020 to mark the distillery’s 15th anniversary, no further casks were sold to private individuals. The financial challenges within a crisis-hit whisky market then forced a rethink in 2024.
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The 2024 offer comprised 150 first-fill ex-bourbon barrels, filled with the heavily peated 50 ppm spirit, which were allocated via a ballot at a price of £5,250 per cask. Between 21 August and 3 September, prospective buyers could register by paying a deposit of £150; the winners were then drawn at random.
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September: 100% Islay 14th Edition released
As has been the case every year since 2018, when the release date for the annual Limited Edition 100% Islay Release was moved to the autumn, the 14th edition of the series was also released right on time at the start of September in 2024.
Unlike in 2023, when – for the first time in several years – a whisky matured exclusively in bourbon casks was bottled, Kilchoman’s founder and Master Blender, Anthony Wills, opted once again in 2024 for a blend of whisky matured in both bourbon and sherry casks. The ratio was stated as 9 parts bourbon to one part Oloroso sherry.
The barley used was of the Publican variety, harvested at Rockside Farm in 2013 and 2014. As is customary with the 100% Islay range, the whisky was bottled at an alcohol content of 50 % ABV.
The 14th release of the 100% Islay Edition was the first to feature an explicit age statement (9 years) on the packaging. Both the packaging and the bottle labels were given a new, very attractive design.
Kilchoman Founder & Managing Direktor Anthony Wills wrote: “Our 100% Islay releases are the culmination of efforts made at each stage of the process, from sowing the barley back in 2013 and 2014, through harvesting, malting, distilling and maturation, all done on-site here at Kilchoman. This year we selected a combination of bourbon and sherry cask maturation. In my eyes, the contrasting influences create a lovely balance of richness and light floral character.”
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September: Comraich 100% Islay Casks
Following a break of just over a year and a half, Kilchoman released a new Comraich Release in September 2024. In the meantime, the distillery had reflected on the concept of the Comraich Bars in general, and the special bottlings available exclusively there, and had made a number of changes.
Whilst the earlier six Comraich releases – which appeared on average once a year – had always been Small Batches comprising 3 to 4 casks and were only available for a short time, the focus now shifted to a release that would be continuously available in the Comraich Bars for a longer period.
This seventh Comraich release was named 100% Islay Casks – 8 years old, and the sequential numbering was discontinued. Owing to the new nature of the release as a continuous bottling, the bottle no longer featured details of cask numbers, distillation dates or bottling dates.
As the name suggests, this is an 8-year-old 100% Islay Single Farm Single Malt, i.e. one of the slightly less peated whiskies produced entirely ‘from barley to bottle’ at Kilchoman, which underpin Kilchoman’s identity as Islay’s farm distillery. Bourbon casks from 2016 were first bottled on 16 August 2024 and diluted to a drinking strength of 48 per cent.
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16 September – 28 October: Kilchoman Batch Strength Asia Tour
Following Kilchoman’s major European tour in the spring to mark the launch of its third General Release, the Batch Strength Release – which took members of the Kilchoman Sales & Marketing team through 20 countries over 10 weeks – a similar tour took place in Asia in September and October 2024.
From 16 September to 28 October, nine countries in East and South-East Asia were visited over a period of six weeks. Starting in Japan, the tour then travelled to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, China and South Korea.
As with the European tour, the exclusive tour bottling of the Batch Strength Release was sold in Asia too; this differed from the standard bottling in its special label and design.
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September: Port Cask Matured 2024 Edition released
At the end of September 2024, Kilchoman released the Port Cask Matured 2024 Edition, the final limited edition of the year. This was already the third limited edition to have been matured in Port casks in Kilchoman’s history.
For the first Port cask matured release, launched in 2014, only fresh Ruby Port hogsheads were used, in which the whisky was allowed to mature for just over three years. For the second edition, released in 2018, however, both fresh and refill Ruby Port hogsheads were used, which were only slightly older than those used in the 2014 edition. The third bottling, released in 2024, was created exclusively from refill Ruby Port hogsheads, specifically from the casks used in the two previous editions. The whiskies contained were therefore just under 10 and 6 years old. This allowed for an interesting comparison of the three bottlings: increasing age of maturation versus an ever-higher proportion of refill casks.
As is always the case with Kilchoman, the whisky, bottled at 50% ABV, was uncoloured and non-chill-filtered. As with the other Limited Releases from 2024, Kilchoman did not specify the number of bottles produced.
Anthony Wills wrote: “When we started Kilchoman, we always wanted to do things slightly differently, some distilleries do release full maturation bottlings, but most tend to do finishes. Full term maturation is fun because you don’t always know how it’s going to work out. We’re fortunate that the Kilchoman spirit character lends itself to bind together with experimental casks very nicely.
Port casks and Kilchoman just works, the natural citrus and sweetness of Kilchoman balance nicely with the red berries and cinnamon influence of the port casks. This latest edition, being older and refill casks, has a little more depth of character compared to past releases, I’m very pleased with how it has come together.”
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4 October 2024: Single bottle of Kilchoman from cask No. 07/2005 auctioned
On three occasions in Kilchoman’s history, a single bottle has been bottled from the distillery’s very first cask, numbered 01/2005, and auctioned off for a good cause.
In October 2024, another bottle from Kilchoman’s very early history was auctioned on the French auction site Fine Spirits Auction; Kilchoman had made this bottle available to support the organisations Foundation GoodPlanet and Foundation Prince Albert II de Monaco. This time, the choice fell on cask No. 07/2005, the last cask from the first year of production – also a refill bourbon barrel and now over 18 years old.
As is well known, after new spirit flowed from the Kilchoman stills for the first time on 9 November 2005, the first seven casks in the distillery’s history were filled on 14 December 2005.
The bottle, presented in an attractive wooden box and accompanied by a certificate from Kilchoman’s founder Anthony Wills, fetched a price of 1,050 EUR when the auction closed on 4 October.
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14 – 26 October: USA Batch Strength Tour
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Following the European tour in the spring and the ongoing Asian tour in the autumn, Kilchoman also undertook a US tour in October 2024, which, like the two previous marketing tours, was dedicated to the new Batch Strength Release.
James Wills, the middle of Anthony and Kathy Wills’ three sons and, like his two brothers, responsible for Kilchoman’s marketing, began the tour on 14 October in Massachusetts and then travelled through Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Washington DC and Maryland, finally concluding the tour in Florida on 26 October.
As with the two previous tours, an exclusive tour bottling of the Batch Strength Release was sold in the USA, which differed from the standard bottling in its special label and design.
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October 2024: Sanaig Cask Strength Release
The Cask Strength bottlings of Machir Bay, released occasionally by Kilchoman, proved extremely popular amongst Kilchoman fans. After all, they showcased a significantly fruitier side to Kilchoman’s standard whisky.
It is therefore no surprise that Kilchoman was repeatedly asked to release the second general release, Sanaig, in Cask Strength as well.
Until now, only participants in the ‘DNA’ online tasting at the Fèis Ìle 2021 had the opportunity to sample a Sanaig Cask Strength, where it was met with great enthusiasm.
At the end of October 2024, Kilchoman heeded the calls of its fans and launched its first Sanaig Cask Strength bottling. The ‘Dark Batch’ variant boasted a robust 57.8% ABV and was met with great enthusiasm.
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4 December 2024: 13th Club Release
Traditionally, at the end of each year, Kilchoman releases an exclusive bottling for members of its Kilchoman Club. Club members were able to purchase the 13th Club Release online via the Kilchoman website on Wednesday 4 December 2024 from 12.00 noon Islay time, limited to one bottle per person, for £72,08 + VAT and shipping.
In 2024, Anthony Wills and Robin Bignal opted for a nine-year-old single-cask bottling from an Oloroso sherry butt.
Like all the sherry casks used by Kilchoman, cask 209/2015 came from the José y Miguel Martín bodega in Jerez and was a fresh ex-Oloroso sherry cask, filled on 1 April 2015 and matured for nine years and seven months in the Kilchoman warehouse in Conisby on Islay.
Kilchoman Founder Anthony Wills wrote: “Single sherry butt bottlings of Kilchoman are quite a rarity so I am delighted to offer this nine year old sherry butt to our Club Members. This particular cask stood out for its seamless combination of rich sherry influence, deep malty notes, and maritime peat smoke”.
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27 December 2024: Kilchoman Online Christmas Tasting
The Kilchoman online Christmas tastings had become a lovely tradition since 2020. In 2024, too, Kilchoman fans didn’t have to miss out. Hosted by Anthony Wills and his eldest son, George Wills, it took place on Friday, 27 December. The event could once again be watched on Facebook and YouTube.
The tasting packs, which also included a Kilchoman tasting glass, were available to purchase for £22.90 plus tax and postage on the Kilchoman website.
The tasting packs contained four samples of Limited Edition bottlings from 2024: the Sauternes Cask Matured 2024 Edition, the Port Cask Matured 2024 Edition, the Sanaig Cask Strength Release and the 13th Edition of the Club Release.
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