John MacLellan died

On 27 March, Easter Sunday, Distillery Manager John MacLellan passed away from cancer. This is not only a huge human loss for Kilchoman, but a loss of expertise that can hardly be measured.

After many years as manager of the Bunnahabhain distillery, John moved to Kilchoman in March 2010 and brought his wealth of experience to Kilchoman production and cask selection over the next few years. It is no exaggeration to say that Kilchoman would not be where it is today without John.

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Kilchoman founder and Managing Director Anthony Wills paid tribute to John in an obituary:

In 2010 we were looking for a Manager, hoping to attract someone with experience beyond production to help us grow Kilchoman globally.  We never dreamt that someone of Johns experience would believe in what we were doing so much that he would want to join us.  He brought with him a wealth of knowledge, a dry sense of humour and a massive following within the whisky world, putting Kilchoman on the map.

John worked well with everyone but especially enjoyed working alongside the younger members of staff praising them when things were done well and encouraging them to make the most of their abilities wherever they worked.

On a personal note, I will miss his positive attitude, his support, his wealth of knowledge and a willingness to get his hands dirty helping in every area of the distillery, even clearing tables in the Café.   What I have learnt from him will continue to help build Kilchoman and I will always be grateful.

My thoughts and those of everyone at Kilchoman are with John’s wife Lindy and their two children Rosie and Sandy at this desperately sad time.

A fund in honour of John has been set up for the Beatson Cancer Charity – https://www.beatsontributefund.org/fund/John%20MacLellan 

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