Anthony Wills: Why Kilchoman needs to grow

Opening the first distillery on Islay for 124 years wasn’t an easy feat for Anthony Wills. While this year sees the launch of around seven new Scotch whisky distilleries, back in 2005 Wills was alone in his journey. ‘There wasn’t another distillery I could go to, to ask how to build a new distillery,’ he says.

Having wrestled with funding issues and fires, Kilchoman is now in the midst of a major expansion that will see production capacity at the Islay farm site double.

Here, in an interview with Wills filmed during Feis Ile in May 2017, he outlines Kilchoman’s expansion plans, and pays tribute to his family, the large distillers who pave the way for smaller operations to succeed, and his late mentor, Dr Jim Swan.