Kilchoman announced the Family Collection First Edition on 21 July 2026: four expressions from 11 to 20 years old, each one picked by a member of the five-strong Wills family. The 20 year old is the oldest Kilchoman ever shipped to retailers.
The four releases
The line opens with the 11 year old, matured entirely in Oloroso casks at 54.7%, drawn from heavily peated barley (50ppm) sourced from Port Ellen Maltings. The 14 year old is the only 100% Islay Rockside Barley in the lot: distilled in 2011 from barley grown and malted on-site at 20ppm, matured in ex-Bourbon Barrels and bottled at 50.9%. Completing the first edition are an 18 year old in ex-Bourbon Barrels at 50%, and a 20 year old in ex-Bourbon Barrels at 49.9%, distilled in 2006 from 50ppm Port Ellen-malted barley like the 11 and the 18. All four were bottled on 19 May 2026.
Each label carries the signatures of Anthony Wills, founder, and Robin Bignal, distillery manager. All bottles are distilled, matured and bottled at the distillery, non-chill filtered and with no added colour.
The Family Collection name comes from how the casks are picked: they are drawn from the annual review of maturing stock, and each of the five members of the Wills family signs off one of the four. Kilchoman is Islay’s farm distillery, the only one on the island that grows and malts its own barley (the Rockside Barley in the 14 year old comes from here), founded by Anthony Wills in 2005 and still family-run today, with Wills’ sons involved in operations. The series follows the format and packaging of the 20th Anniversary Cask Series from 2025 and is set up as an annual release: the First Edition tag leaves the door open to the ones after it. Several retailers list it as Family Casks 1st Edition, but it is the same collection.
Stepping up the age statements
Kilchoman started distilling in December 2005, so a 20 year old sits at the very edge of what the warehouse can offer today. The 1st Edition is also the first Kilchoman block where the 14 year old 100% Islay Rockside Barley sits alongside three releases produced from Port Ellen-malted barley, a rare side-by-side between in-house grown grain and externally sourced malt at comparable ages.
The series marks Kilchoman’s structural step into longer-aged peated whisky, with the 20 year old as a milestone for a distillery just turning twenty. Runs of older Kilchoman releases are historically tight.
Where to buy it
The four bottles are sold only through Kilchoman’s retail partners in the UK and overseas: given how few there are, the distillery is not selling them from its own website. In the UK the 11 year old starts at £99, the 14 year old at £111, the 18 year old at £166, and the 20 year old sits between £214 and £249; the full set came out at £608 at The Whisky Shop, where it has already sold out. Kilchoman’s Fèis Ìle bottling was a different one, the 15 year old Calvados Finish at £130, reserved for those who made it to the island.
