There are whiskies that travel the world before they’re bottled, and then there is Kilchoman’s 100% Islay series—spirits that never leave the island until the moment they’re ready to be shared. This September, the distillery introduced the 15th Edition of its celebrated range, a 9-year-old whisky drawn from 54 ex-bourbon barrels distilled from the 2014 and 2015 harvests of Concerto and Publican barley.
For Kilchoman, the only farm distillery on Islay, this annual release is as much about storytelling as it is about flavor. The whisky is the physical embodiment of the land: barley grown in the island’s fields, malted and distilled on site, matured in coastal warehouses, and bottled at the distillery. It is a closed loop of production—grain to glass, field to bottle—rare even in Scotland.
Lower Peat, Higher Citrus
While Kilchoman’s Machir Bay and Sanaig expressions lean into robust peat smoke, the 100% Islay 15th Edition comes at the tradition from a slightly different angle. Distilled from Islay-grown barley with a lower peating level, it delivers a more viscous palate, one that emphasizes elevated citrus and malty notes without abandoning the island’s signature smoke.
Bottled at 50% ABV, the whisky carries both intensity and finesse. According to founder Anthony Wills, the sensory journey begins with “fresh vanilla giving way to tropical fruit, toasted oak, and salted butter, with layers of candied citrus fruits, ripe pear, white pepper and waves of peat smoke.”
It’s a description that suggests not just complexity but a balance between brightness and depth, between Islay’s elemental ruggedness and its capacity for delicacy.
From Field to Bottle: The 100% Islay Story
The series is as much about place as about process. Kilchoman grows its barley on the island’s western farmland, a windswept stretch where Atlantic spray and thin soils conspire to yield modest harvests. Those harvests are malted by hand at the distillery’s own floor maltings, a practice almost extinct in modern Scotch production.
The whisky then spends its years in ex-bourbon barrels, a nod to tradition but also a deliberate choice to let the barley’s character speak. The result is a spirit that does not disguise its origin. It is a whisky with the geography of Islay embedded in every layer: the brine, the citrus, the smoke rising from the kiln.
Availability and Price
The Kilchoman 100% Islay 15th Edition will be available this week across the UK and Europe, with further distribution rolling out globally in the coming weeks. Enthusiasts outside Europe are advised to contact local stockists to secure bottles, as demand for the series has historically outpaced supply.
At its heart, this release is more than a collectible or a seasonal bottling. It’s an invitation to taste the island itself—to drink not just whisky but the story of a place, a harvest, and a people who insist that true authenticity begins in the soil.
For more information, head over to the distillery’s official website.
