Roadtrip I - Isle of Islay
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Part of my Isle of Islay Roadtrip with two mates. This is Part Two of Three | Find Part One, Part Three here |
Kilchoman Distillery
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Right after we dropped off our Bowmore souvenirs at our hotel room Mike from Islay Taxis arrived to pick us up for the ride to the Kilchoman Distillery. On our way encountered the expression that Scotland, and specially the Islands, hold four seasons in one day. Was it dark and raining at Bowmore, it was bright and sunny around Kilchoman. Amazing. After a short ride we arrrved safe and sound at our second stop for today. Kilchoman Distillery, were we had booked the standard tour for 15:00.
Obviously when you join the tour you will again start at the beginning. The malt floor. In this case empty as Kilchoman was already working on new New Spirit.
From the malting floor to fireplace and the malt mill. Due to the small setup of Kilchoman you will pass the stills and mashtun on your way to the malt mill and washbacks.
A different and smaller setup compared to the Bowmore washbacks.
Back past the malt mill to the wash still, the spirit still and the always important spirit safe. Here is were you separate the heart of the spirit from the head and the tail.
And then it is off to the 'bottling and labeling area'. As this is still a new, starting but growing distillery a lot of manual labor is done. For the standard bottelling of Machir Bay and 100% Islay they have a small label machine. For the other expressions the labels are applied by hand after the cork and seal have been put on...also by hand. If all goes well an automatic cork machine should arrive by the end of the year. As most casks are stored on the Island at Bruichladdich and other warehouses you will not find many filled casks on the Kilchoman Terrain.
After the botteling and labeling area it was time to taste some of the whisky and make the mandatory "I was here picture".
From the cabinet we where allowed to taste the 100% Islay 3rd Release and the Loch Gorm 2013.
Due to the sunny weather we decided to walk towards the main road for an easy pick up by Mike and his taxi van. So with the souvenirs in our hand we started the short walk.
Although the the tour was at an end, our day was not. After picking us up Mike asked us if we were interested to see Machir Bay. Not the bottle, but the actual beach.
As we had the weather in our favor we agreed to his proposal and jumped in the taxi. Pictures of that will be below. Otherwise follow the quick link to our Lagavulin vist the next day.
Part of my Isle of Islay Roadtrip with two mates | This is Part Two of Three | Find Part One, Part Three here
Roadtrip I - Isle of Islay
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So after our tour at the Kilchoman distillery Mike offered us to show us the Machir Bay beach only a few minutes away. A short drive brought us to see the beach in full glory. The outer point on the right is called Coull point, a landmark used by Kilchoman to name one of his other expressions.
After visiting the beach we still had some time to spare and our friendly Islay taxi driver offered a stop with a view over Loch Gorm. Another landmark used as an bottllling expression by Kilchoman.
Having soaked in the Islay nature it was time to head to the hotel and freshen up for dinner. As the weather in Bowmore had turned out for the better a quick snapshot was taken out of the window of our hotel.
Part of my Isle of Islay Roadtrip with two mates | This is Part Two of Three | Find Part One, Part Three here
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