Kilchoman Machir Bay (General Release, since 2015)
Cask type: bourbon barrels (approx. 90%) and oloroso sherry butts (approx. 10%)
Bottled: since 2015
Age: NAS (initially 3-5 years, currently: approx. 5 years)
Strength: 46,0 % abv
Phenol level: 50 ppm
Bottle volume: 0,05 l / 0,7 l / 0,75 l
Bottle codes: see: List of Machir Bay Batches (Work in Progress)
Barcode: 5 06021 700522
Distribution: worldwide
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After the first Kilchoman whiskies were released approximately quarterly as limited releases from 2009-2011, the first General Release – i.e. the distillery’s first always-available bottling – was launched at the beginning of 2012 with Machir Bay, which is still Kilchoman’s signature release to date. Named after the bay not far from the distillery with one of Islay’s most beautiful sandy beaches, the batch-bottled release was labelled with the year of bottling from 2012 to 2014. During this period, the age of the whiskies contained in the bottle increased from year to year. From 2015 onwards, this procedure was abandoned, mainly due to the fact that the cask stocks were still too low. Since then, Machir Bay no longer has an explicit year specification – the time of bottling and the batch number can only be recognised by the bottle code – and the age of the whiskies contained was frozen at around 3-5 years and a sherry cask proportion of 10% was specified.
Since the beginning of the 2020s, the age of the whiskies included has been increased to around 5 years.