Kilchoman Distillery buys Rockside Farm

The Kilchoman Distillery Company Ltd. announced yesterday that it will be purchasing Rockside Farm, on which the distillery is situated, from its current owners. Mark and Rohaise French, who ran the farm for 30 years and played a key role in establishing the distillery on their farmland, decided to sell the farm to Anthony Wills, citing the official reason that they wished to devote more time to their four adult children and their families. The handover is scheduled to take place in November 2015.

Anthony Wills, Managing Director of Kilchoman Distillery commented: “We have always been proud to produce whisky from barley to bottle and the purchase of Rockside Farm secures this vision for the future”.

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The significance of Kilchoman’s purchase of Rockside Farm cannot be overstated. In future, the distillery will not only have access to Rockside Farm’s entire barley harvest, but will also be able to construct new buildings, particularly warehouses. Until now, production has taken place in leased premises; Mark French – with whom relations had, unfortunately, deteriorated significantly over the years – had not permitted the construction of new buildings, meaning that a new warehouse had to be built in Conisby, on the other side of the Rhinns, in 2013. Furthermore, Mark French did not sell more than the originally agreed quantity of just 100 tonnes of barley per year to Kilchoman, preferring instead to sell it to Bruichladdich.

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