Fèis Ìle 2025: Programme, Festival Release, Tasting Packs

The Kilchoman Open Day at the Islay Festival Fèis Ìle 2025 is generating particularly high expectations among fans this year, as the distillery was founded 20 years ago at Fèis Ìle 2005. Today, Kilchoman announced its programme for the day, Thursday 29 May, and presented the festival special bottling and two tasting packs for online tastings.

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The diverse programme once again offers a mix of special distillery and farm tours, masterclass tastings and numerous other events.

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Here an overview:

MASTERCLASS TASTINGS

  • 11:00 – 20th Anniversary Cask Series Masterclass with Anthony Wills – Tasting of the 20th anniversary series of four limited releases, which sold out quickly.
  • 14:30 – Founder’s Cask Exploration with Anthony Wills –  tasting of six specially selected cask samples straight from the warehouse, including the 7th cask ever filled (Exclusive to Kilchoman Club members)

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BOOKABLE EVENTS

  • Be A Bottler – 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 14:00, 15:00 (includes a personalised bottle of a Distillery Exclusive Single Cask).
  • Islay’s Farm Tour – 10:30, 12:30, 14:30 – Islay Heads, General Manager, will take you on a guided tour around the farm and local area, sampling a few drams along the way!
  • Open Tastings – Short guided tastings of four selected whiskies will be available throughout the day (tickets available at the bar).

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EXPLORE THE DISTILLERY

Entry to the distillery on Fèis Day is free! Production areas will be open and operational, offering a behind-the-scenes look at how we craft our whisky. Our team will be on hand to share insights and answer all your Kilchoman questions.

  • Still House – Enjoy a dram of Machir Bay while learning about the mashing, fermentation and distillation process.  Take the opportunity to ask the team all your questions.
  • Malt Floor – Discover the art of traditional floor malting, learn more about peat, see the kiln and enjoy a dram of 100% Islay which has been produced from barley grown on our farm and malted on that very floor.  We might even rope you into lending a hand preparing the next batch!
  • Warehouse No. 3 – Explore one of the traditional dunnage warehouses, take a picture with Cask No.1 and enjoy a wee dram of Sanaig whilst chatting to the team about maturation and the cask types currently in the warehouses at Kilchoman.
  • Barley Fields – Check out the 2025 barley varieties growing in the fields as you make your way down the drive to the distillery.

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EATING, DRINKING, DANCING & SHOPPING

  • The Whisky Bar will be serving a range of new and old Kilchoman editions, Comraich Batches and Single Casks. Driver dram bottles will also be available to take away.
  • Cocktail Bar – a selection of delicious whisky cocktails will be available from the bar throughout the day, fingers crossed for cocktail weather!
  • Live music – Performances from Rhuvaal, Ceol an Aire, and The Kilchoman Distillery Isle of Islay Pipe Band.  Join us for a ceilidh in the courtyard!
  • Food Offerings – BBQ featuring local meats, light bites from the Salad Bar, as well as teas, coffees, and home baking from the Café. Vegetarian and vegan options available.
  • Gift shop – All the branded gear you could ever want from the Distillery Shop.
  • Games & Activities – with various prizes to be won.

WHISKY SHOP
The shop will be open from 10am, offering our latest Limited Editions, Distillery Shop Exclusive Single Casks, and, of course, the highly anticipated Fèis Ìle 2025 bottling.

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This year’s Fèis Ìle special bottling is a vatting of two refill Madeira casks from 2015. The 100% Islay whisky was distilled and produced from barley grown on Kilchoman’s own fields and then produced entirely at Kilchoman, ‘from barley to bottle’.

Anthony Wills wrote about it: “As usual, our Fèis Ìle release is only available to those who make the journey over to Islay, sold exclusively through the distillery shop. While searching for something a bit unusual to bottle, I came across several Madeira hogsheads that were filled with our 100% Islay spirit back in 2015.

We very rarely mature our 100% Islay spirit for its full maturation in anything other than ex-bourbon or sherry casks, so I was thrilled to find these unusual casks coming along so well. The lighter peating level allows for the bold Madeira notes to come through into the whisky.”  

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For Kilchoman fans who are unable to attend the festival in person, the distillery is once again hosting two different online tastings on Facebook & Instagram. The ‘Limited Release Line-Up’ tasting with James & George Wills on Wednesday, 28 May, 7p.m. Islay timewill be dedicated to the latest limited edition Kilchoman whiskies . The ‘Founder’s Cask Exploration’ online tasting with Anthony and James Wills will take place on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. Islay time. Here, four different cask samples, two bourbon barrels and two Oloroso sherry butts, will be tasted in both the 100% Islay 20ppm version and the ‘normal’ 50ppm version.

The tasting packs can be purchased from the distillery’s online shop.

Included, alongside a Kilchoman tasting glass, are 2cl samples of each of the following bottlings:

“Limited Release Line-Up”

  • 100% Islay 14th Edition 2024
  • 13 yo Limited Edition 2025
  • Loch Gorm 10 yo 2025 Edition
  • Fèis Ìle 2025 Release

“Founder´s Cask Exploration”

  • Cask Sample 497/2010 – 100% Islay 1st Fill Bourbon Barrel
  • Cask Sample 163/2006 – 1st Fill Bourbon Barrel
  • Cask Sample 145/2011 – 100% Islay 1st Fill Sherry Butt
  • Cask Sample 258/2010 – 1st Fill Sherry Butt

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