A new building has been constructed containing two new stills, a new mashtun and six additional washbacks which will boost capacity to 480,000 litres of alcohol.
“The stillhouse extension is the latest phase of an expansion that started last year with the completion of our new malt floor and kiln, we hope to complete the final phase; a new visitor centre, shop and café within the next 3-4 months," said Kilchoman founder Anthony Wills.
Kilchoman became the first whisky distillery to be built in Islay for 124 years when it was erected in 2005 and is one of the few independent scotch whisky producers.
It remains the only Islay single malt whisky to be completely made on site and from harvesting barley to bottling its whisky.
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Wills added: “At a time when I thought I might take a step back we’ve invested around £6m in upgrades. That said, without an increase in capacity we would be heading towards a situation where all Kilchoman would be sold purely on allocation.
“The investment amounts to almost an entirely new distillery in itself however we wanted to ensure that the new equipment was a mirror image of the original stillhouse and we’ve been delighted with the quality of the spirit, with no discernible difference in the character of that produced from the new compared to old stills.
“The new equipment will also allow us to experiment more during the malting and peat phases as well as in the stillhouse with yeast varieties and isolating specific spirit runs.”
