| Personal view: |
Big surprise! Finally we arrived on Islay, the aim of my dreams. Spending some time between all my favorite whisky sources: Lagavulin, Laphoig, Bruichladdich, Bowmore, Ardbeg, Bunnahabhain, Caol Ila. I know the list by heart, having read any book I could get. And there is one more, Port Ellen, but that is closed and it seems it will stay closed.
But on the Islay maps flying around everywhere (ferry, restaurants, shops) there is one more distillery mentioned: Kilchoman. Is this possible? A well kept secret? But certainly the authors like Micheal Jackson and Jim Murray would not have kept quiet about such exciting news as another Islay distillery? I could not believe it. I thought there is something wrong. I planned to let it be whatever it was (a hoax?) and spend the sparse time for the most famous distilleries around. - But we wanted to have a look to the Atlantic ocean anyway, so Kilchoman would be on our way. Why not have a look?
Okay we looked at Kilchoman. It calls itself a farm distillery, and claims to be more original, more classic than all the other distilleries. But why does nobody know about it? The answer turned out to be simple: Kilchoman is far from ready to produce spirit. It is just in phase of construction. And for me (I am not an expert) the machinery as what is already installed looks quite modern. And even when will finally be ready, it will be a farm distillery, i.e. very small, mainly to show the process and experiment with the oldest distilling methods. (This is my understanding, if someone knows better let me know.) There slogan is "Taking whisky back to its roots".
Update: The Kilchoman web site is quite enlightning. As they have sold out their 2005 cask offer it is safe to assume they are confident to start production very soon! Exciting. |
| Shopping and tour: |
Shopping a whisky which is years away? Of course not. But there is a shop offering typical seaside-things, ceramics, other local art, and a visitor centre, quite a neat one. (You could say they startet from the wrong end.) It is a cosy place to sit and talk and drink - a perfect Italian cappuccino! |
