Dear Venerable Scotch Elders,

Theres some young blood coursing through Islays veins. Now before you start puffin your chests, weve got a word of advice: scoot your stool over and make some room at the bar. Exchange a few pleasantries with thenewbs. Truth is,these farm-distillin folks are making some mighty fine stuff.

And that takes us to the most southerly island of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland: Islay. Thats where youll find Kilchoman, one of Scotlands youngest distilleries. In fact, its the first distillery to be built on the island in over 124 yearshows that for some context? As it turns out, Kilchomans founder, Anthony Wills, has a taste for tradition (and some damn good Scotch). Thats what inspired him to revive the lost art of farm distillation, a method that was widely used before the mass commercialization of distilleries in the 1800s.

On that farm, they harvest Islays fertile grounds for barley before using the traditionalbut rarely usedmethod of floor malting. The barley is peated using ocean-soaked peat bogs before its mashed, fermented and matured in Bourbon barrels and Sherry butts sourced directly from the world-renowned Buffalo Trace distillery in the U.S. and Bodega Miguel Martin in Spain.

Oh, and this stuffs the real deal: Kilchomans 100% Islay range remains the only Islay single malt produced completely on site, from barley to bottle.

In the box, youll experience exactly what were talking about. Machir Bay, Kilchomans signature Scotch, balances that classic Islay character with a subdued floral complexity. The smooth, young Sanaig talks a lot of smackit unabashedly slaps your palate with smoke-infused notes of dark chocolate-covered raisins. And lastly, something exceptionally rare: Kilchoman Madeira Cask Matured, 17 casks that previously held Madeira Wine were filled with Kilchoman Single Malt Whisky to produce 6,100 bottles of an exceptional Madeira finish.

Heres to Islays young guns

Slainte!

Smartass Corner

1) Whats in name? To be considered a single malt Scotch, a bottle may only contain Whisky distilled from malted barley and produced at a single distillery.

2) Good things come in small batches: Kilchoman is one of the smallest Scotch distilleries, producing around 120,000 liters a year. By comparison, Ardbegone of Islays most famous distilleriespumps out over one million liters annually.

3) All they do is win, win, win: Kilchomans Machir Bay, a vatting of four and five-year-old Bourbon cask matured and Oloroso-finished malt, was awarded a Gold Medal at the 2012 International Wine and Spirit Competition and named Whisky of the Year at the International Whisky Competition.

4) Sanaig is the name of a little natural stream that runs by the distillery. And it makes sense for Kilchomans eponymous bottleit tastes light and fresh without losing its peaty Islay character.

5) The island of Islay itself plays a large role in the taste of its Whiskies. Thats because Islay is largely composed of peat. In fact, most of the water there has a brown-ish hue due to its abundance. But thats not allthe winter gales that blow sea salt inland also factor into some of the briney notes youll find in their Whiskies.

6) Alright, interesting enough. But what exactly is peat? Peat is thousands of years worth of decaying vegetation, animals and moss which have evolved into layers that eventually form a bog. It grows at approximate 1mm per year, meaning a bog thats one meter thick has been around for about a thousand years.

7) Ever heard someone say that got blind drunk? The term comes from the product of early Whisky distilling practices. Brewers didnt realize the Beer they were condensing into liquor contained methanol, a raw form of antifreeze that made people blind.