The KOTQ

The last remaining region of Scotland without a single malt distillery, the Shetland Islands, have a plan for a new distillery – the Blackwood Distillery. Check it out!

Kilchoman is the first new distillery to be built on Islay for well over a century. The driving force behind Kilchoman is Anthony Wills and he dreams of building the smallest and most traditional distillery in Scotland – or at least on Islay. Kilchoman will be one of the few distilleries that will be able to claim that every step of the production process is carried out on site. Barley (Optic and Chalice) will be grown at Rockside Farm and malted on Kilchoman’s malt floor. The spirit will be produced, matured and bottled on site and everything produced at the distillery will be bottled as single malt whisky. The whisky won’t be chill filtered or coloured and will be reduced to a standard bottling strength of 50% using Islay water.

During the summer of 2004 the traditional farm buildings at Rockside Farm (near Machir Bay) were being converted into a visitor centre and the first distillery buildings. Two stainless steel washbacks arived in February 2005 and the stills (a 2,000 litre spirit still with a long narrow neck and a 3,000 litre wash still) were installed in February 2005 and will be directly heated. The first spirit is scheduled to flow on June 2, 2005 during the Islay festival.

Anthony plans to produce some 35,000 litres of alcohol during the first year. That’s equivalent to 84,000 bottles of whisky bottled at 8 years and 50%. Production should be steadily increased over the years until approximately 90,000 litres of alcohol after a decade. Kilchoman will initially be in production for 28 weeks of the year. Fresh bourbon and refill barrels will form the base of the maturation programme, but other casks (sherry, port, rum and wine) may be used as well.

For further information check out the Kilchoman website.

Full credit to www.maltmadness.com for this great writeup!

J & A Mitchell & Co Ltd, owners of Springbank, will soon open a brand new distillery within the walls of the old Glengyle Distillery buildings in Campbeltown. The malt will be called Kilkerran. I give the Mitchell family a ton of credit for all of their efforts in keeping the tradition of Campbeltown alive.

Check out the good news at Kilkerran’s web site.

The Club intends, by focusing on very small production quantities, to create one of the world’s greatest single malt whiskies. By reducing yields so that we can always improve quality, and by distributing our whisky only to members and special guests who visit the distillery, Ladybank will add a new dimension to the world of Scotch Malt Whisky production.

The Ladybank distillery itself is still on the drawing board. According to the plans it will be located in the ‘Kingdom of Fife’, a site specifically chosen for its convenient location close to barley growers.

More info at the Ladybank web site

I’m excited to begin a blog thread on brand new bottlings from new distilleries. This is an important aspect of the current success and growth of the single malt Scotch industry. Check out this Benromach bottling – launched in March, 2004.