Kilchoman Machir Bay
Kilchoman Distillery Co. (Independent) · Kilchoman Distillery, Rockside Farm, Islay
Kilchoman is what happens when someone decides to do everything the hard way — and gets it spectacularly right. Anthony Wills didn't just build a new distillery on Islay; he built one that grows its own barley, malts it over its own peat-fired kiln, and distills in tiny copper pot stills.
Nose
Peat smoke and sea spray, lemon zest, heather honey, vanilla fudge, with a floral sweetness rising through the smoke
Palate
Maritime peat balanced by orchard fruit, salted caramel, smoked honey, black pepper, and a rich creaminess from the sherry cask influence
Finish
Medium-long with lingering campfire smoke, sea salt, and a clean citrus brightness
- Distillation
- Double distilled in copper pot stills
- Maturation
- Combination of first-fill bourbon barrels and Oloroso sherry casks
- Chill-Filtered
- Non-chill filtered, natural color
Cocktail Suggestion
Cocktail — The Peat & Honey Highball: 2 oz Kilchoman Machir Bay · 0.5 oz honey syrup (1:1) · 4 oz chilled soda water · Lemon twist. Build over ice in a tall glass, stir gently twice.
Food Pairing
Pair with: Smoked salmon on dark rye bread with a squeeze of lemon — the smoke in both amplifies the maritime character.
Redbreast Lustau Edition
Irish Distillers (Pernod Ricard)
The Lustau Edition is Redbreast's most layered expression — a whiskey that seems to change shape in the glass. That final year in Lustau's first-fill Oloroso butts doesn't overpower the pot still character; it adds a last chapter to an already complex story.
Cragganmore 12 Year Old
Diageo
Cragganmore 12 is the Speyside malt that rewards the patient nose. Where many single malts deliver their story in one dramatic chapter, Cragganmore reads like a novel with slow-building subplots. Those unique T-shaped lyne arms create a spirit of genuine complexity that unfolds over an hour in the glass.
Old Grand-Dad 114
Beam Suntory
Old Grand-Dad 114 is the thinking drinker's value bourbon — a bottle that punches so far above its price point it almost feels like a mistake. That 27% rye mash bill, nearly double the industry average, gives it a backbone of spice that would overwhelm a lesser whiskey, but here it serves as architecture for layers of caramel, chocolate, and charred oak to hang upon. The high proof isn't a gimmick — it's a magnifying glass, amplifying nuances that lower-proof expressions wash away. At under thirty-five dollars, this is a bottle that seasoned bourbon drinkers quietly recommend to one another.
Chairman's Reserve The Forgotten Casks
St. Lucia Distillers Group of Companies
The Forgotten Casks is the rum world's most eloquent argument for the virtue of accidental patience. Those extra years of unplanned aging produced a rum of remarkable layered depth at a price that would be impossible if it were intentional.
Cragganmore 12 Year Old
Diageo
Cragganmore 12 is the Speyside malt that rewards the patient nose. Where many single malts deliver their story in one dramatic chapter, Cragganmore reads like a novel with slow-building subplots. Those unique T-shaped lyne arms create a spirit of genuine complexity that unfolds over an hour in the glass.
Caol Ila 12 Year Old
Diageo
Caol Ila is Islay’s quiet giant. It is the largest distillery on the island, producing more whisky than any of its neighbors, yet most of that output disappears into Diageo’s blended Scotch portfolio. The 12 Year Old single malt bottling is what happens when you give Caol Ila a chance to speak for itself — and it speaks with an elegance that surprises anyone expecting another peat bomb. The smoke here is maritime and measured, threaded through with citrus brightness and a saline minerality that tastes like the shoreline where the distillery stands. At its price point, Caol Ila 12 is one of the most undervalued single malts in the Diageo portfolio — hidden in plain sight behind Lagavulin’s fame.
Aberlour A’Bunadh
Pernod Ricard (Chivas Brothers)
A’Bunadh is Aberlour’s love letter to the sherry butts of Jerez.
Clynelish 14 Year Old
Diageo