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Release Notes
Matured in a unique combination of 1st fill Bourbon and 1st fill Sherry casks for notes of fresh apple, sweet floral grass and hints of chocolate. ‘Vinaya’, a Sanskrit word meaning respect and gratitude, pays homage to the original founders of the distillery who paved the way, as Bladnoch looks forward to an exciting new era of production and innovation.
Bladnoch.com
3rd Party Tasting Notes
Tasting Notes: Apple, floral grass, chocolate
Nose: Sweet floral grass with boiled sweets
Palate: Fresh green apples and chocolate with a hint of pepper
Finish: Light and refreshing
Nose: Sweet floral grass with boiled sweets
Palate: Fresh green apples and chocolate with a hint of pepper
Finish: Light and refreshing
Bladnoch.com
The Distillery: Bladnoch
| Established: 1825 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: DG8 9AB |
| → website |
The Bladnoch distillery was built on the banks of the river Bladnoch in 1817 by Thomas McClelland and remainded in the hands of the McClelland / McLelland family until it was closed in 1938. The family (who was also responsible for rebuilding the distillery in 1871) owned Bladnoch for over a century...
After the closure of 1938 Bladnoch moved from one owner to the other for almost two decades before it was brought back to life again in 1956 by the Bladnoch Distillery Ltd.; a company that was acquired by Ian Fisher in 1964. The number of stills was increased from two to four in 1966, just two years later.
The distillery was purchased by Inver House Distillers Ltd., (a subsidiary of Publicker Industries Ltd. in the USA) in 1973 who sold it to Arthur Bell & Sons plc. in 1983. Ownership converted to United Distillers in 1985 before Bladnoch fell silent and was converted to a heritage center in 1993.
That wasn't the end of the Bladnoch malt whisky distillery though... Irishman Raymond Armstrong managed to buy Bladnoch from United Distillers (predecessors of Diageo) in 1994. It took quite some time to get the whole operation back into working order; a large portion of the plant and equipment had been removed when it was closed down in 1993, only the stills and washbacks remained intact. Fortunately, Raymond managed to overcome the various difficulties; in November 2000 the first spirit of the new millennium flowed from the stills at Bladnoch.That wasn't the end of the Bladnoch malt whisky distillery though... Irishman Raymond Armstrong managed to buy Bladnoch from United Distillers (predecessors of Diageo) in 1994. It took quite some time to get the whole operation back into working order; a large portion of the plant and equipment had been removed when it was closed down in 1993, only the stills and washbacks remained intact. Fortunately, Raymond managed to overcome the various difficulties; in November 2000 the first spirit of the new millennium flowed from the stills at Bladnoch.That wasn't the end of the Bladnoch malt whisky distillery though... Irishman Raymond Armstrong managed to buy Bladnoch from United Distillers (predecessors of Diageo) in 1994. It took quite some time to get the whole operation back into working order; a large portion of the plant and equipment had been removed when it was closed down in 1993, only the stills and washbacks remained intact. Fortunately, Raymond managed to overcome the various difficulties; in November 2000 the first spirit of the new millennium flowed from the stills at Bladnoch.
Not a lot, though... One of UD's conditions for the sale of Bladnoch was that the production would not exceed 100,000 litres of whisky per year. That is more than enough whisky to drink yourself silly, but not really a lot compared to the 1,300,000 litres of malt whisky that Bladnoch produced each year in the late 1980s.
That's why Bladnoch distillery only has two working stills these days. The maximum - theoretical - output of Bladnoch now is 250,000 litres of alcohol per year, but it's not clear if they will ever reach that again...
The new owner of Bladnoch distillery, Raymond Armstrong, was born in Northern Ireland. As you may know, Ireland has its own tradition of whisk(e)y distillation - which is quite different from the Scottish method. That's why some people wondered if Raymond would make any changes to the traditional 'Lowland' method of whisky distillation. That's why I asked Raymond if they would be producing a 'fully Scottish' malt whisky at Bladnoch - i.e. a whisky made from Scottish barley. This is what Raymond told me;
'A "fully Scottish" malt from a distillery that is much closer to Ireland than to the Highlands or even Glasgow; from a distillery that up until the mid nineteen fifties used the Irish style of triple distilling and like Irish distillers doesn't use peated malt; from a distillery that between 1911 and 1937 was owned by Royal Irish Distillers of Belfast; from a distillery situated in remote Galloway were its' inhabitants are known in Scotland as the Galloway Irish and where in the last century Gaelic was spoken. To be sure I'll be producing a "fully Scottish" malt!'.
Well, that's cleared up then ;-) I also asked Raymond about the how and why of buying a Scotch whisky distillery...
'I purchased Bladnoch in October of 1994. United Distillers had mothballed it in June 1993 along with Rosebank, Pittyvaich and Balmenach following the hostile take-over bid by Guinness of Bells and DCL. I was in South West Scotland looking for a holiday home and the distillery cottage was empty. Its location just 30 minutes drive from the ferry to Ireland was ideal.'
'When I first asked UD to sell it they were a little surprised. At the time I was able to justify the price which as usual I didn't have, by the possibility of converting some of the stone buildings into additional holiday accommodation to rent.'
'We have fishing rights and planning permission for caravanning and camping. So it was sold to me as property not as a distillery. If the truth be known I got the title deeds and my bank manager got the debt. One of the conditions of sale was that it should not be used as a distillery.'
Well, as we know, Raymond managed to get past that condition after a while. And Bladnoch even went further; not only was the distillery revived, Bladnoch now has its own 'whisky school ' these days - just like Springbank in Campbeltown and Bruichladdich on Islay. Now that these malt whisky distilleries employ so many people that are willing to pay for the privilege of working there (not even child labourers do that), I would have expected the prices of the whisky that was produced with the help of volunteers to drop - but oddly enough they haven't yet ;-)
In the New Millenium
After the closure of 1938 Bladnoch moved from one owner to the other for almost two decades before it was brought back to life again in 1956 by the Bladnoch Distillery Ltd.; a company that was acquired by Ian Fisher in 1964. The number of stills was increased from two to four in 1966, just two years later.
The distillery was purchased by Inver House Distillers Ltd., (a subsidiary of Publicker Industries Ltd. in the USA) in 1973 who sold it to Arthur Bell & Sons plc. in 1983. Ownership converted to United Distillers in 1985 before Bladnoch fell silent and was converted to a heritage center in 1993.
That wasn't the end of the Bladnoch malt whisky distillery though... Irishman Raymond Armstrong managed to buy Bladnoch from United Distillers (predecessors of Diageo) in 1994. It took quite some time to get the whole operation back into working order; a large portion of the plant and equipment had been removed when it was closed down in 1993, only the stills and washbacks remained intact. Fortunately, Raymond managed to overcome the various difficulties; in November 2000 the first spirit of the new millennium flowed from the stills at Bladnoch.That wasn't the end of the Bladnoch malt whisky distillery though... Irishman Raymond Armstrong managed to buy Bladnoch from United Distillers (predecessors of Diageo) in 1994. It took quite some time to get the whole operation back into working order; a large portion of the plant and equipment had been removed when it was closed down in 1993, only the stills and washbacks remained intact. Fortunately, Raymond managed to overcome the various difficulties; in November 2000 the first spirit of the new millennium flowed from the stills at Bladnoch.That wasn't the end of the Bladnoch malt whisky distillery though... Irishman Raymond Armstrong managed to buy Bladnoch from United Distillers (predecessors of Diageo) in 1994. It took quite some time to get the whole operation back into working order; a large portion of the plant and equipment had been removed when it was closed down in 1993, only the stills and washbacks remained intact. Fortunately, Raymond managed to overcome the various difficulties; in November 2000 the first spirit of the new millennium flowed from the stills at Bladnoch.
Not a lot, though... One of UD's conditions for the sale of Bladnoch was that the production would not exceed 100,000 litres of whisky per year. That is more than enough whisky to drink yourself silly, but not really a lot compared to the 1,300,000 litres of malt whisky that Bladnoch produced each year in the late 1980s.
That's why Bladnoch distillery only has two working stills these days. The maximum - theoretical - output of Bladnoch now is 250,000 litres of alcohol per year, but it's not clear if they will ever reach that again...
The new owner of Bladnoch distillery, Raymond Armstrong, was born in Northern Ireland. As you may know, Ireland has its own tradition of whisk(e)y distillation - which is quite different from the Scottish method. That's why some people wondered if Raymond would make any changes to the traditional 'Lowland' method of whisky distillation. That's why I asked Raymond if they would be producing a 'fully Scottish' malt whisky at Bladnoch - i.e. a whisky made from Scottish barley. This is what Raymond told me;
'A "fully Scottish" malt from a distillery that is much closer to Ireland than to the Highlands or even Glasgow; from a distillery that up until the mid nineteen fifties used the Irish style of triple distilling and like Irish distillers doesn't use peated malt; from a distillery that between 1911 and 1937 was owned by Royal Irish Distillers of Belfast; from a distillery situated in remote Galloway were its' inhabitants are known in Scotland as the Galloway Irish and where in the last century Gaelic was spoken. To be sure I'll be producing a "fully Scottish" malt!'.
Well, that's cleared up then ;-) I also asked Raymond about the how and why of buying a Scotch whisky distillery...
'I purchased Bladnoch in October of 1994. United Distillers had mothballed it in June 1993 along with Rosebank, Pittyvaich and Balmenach following the hostile take-over bid by Guinness of Bells and DCL. I was in South West Scotland looking for a holiday home and the distillery cottage was empty. Its location just 30 minutes drive from the ferry to Ireland was ideal.'
'When I first asked UD to sell it they were a little surprised. At the time I was able to justify the price which as usual I didn't have, by the possibility of converting some of the stone buildings into additional holiday accommodation to rent.'
'We have fishing rights and planning permission for caravanning and camping. So it was sold to me as property not as a distillery. If the truth be known I got the title deeds and my bank manager got the debt. One of the conditions of sale was that it should not be used as a distillery.'
Well, as we know, Raymond managed to get past that condition after a while. And Bladnoch even went further; not only was the distillery revived, Bladnoch now has its own 'whisky school ' these days - just like Springbank in Campbeltown and Bruichladdich on Islay. Now that these malt whisky distilleries employ so many people that are willing to pay for the privilege of working there (not even child labourers do that), I would have expected the prices of the whisky that was produced with the help of volunteers to drop - but oddly enough they haven't yet ;-)
In the New Millenium
- 2000 - Six years after Bladnoch was purchased by Raymond Armstrong the production was started in December, on the very brink of the new millennium. No bottlings were released at this point, though.
- 2003 - Raymond Armstrong releases the first new (official) bottlings from Bladnoch; first a 15yo expression and a while later a 13yo (one at 40% and another at 55%). These were filled from old casks from the UDV period.
- 2008 - The first bottlings from stocks laid down by Raymond Armstrong were released; three 6yo expressions. One of those releases was matured in sherry casks, two of them in bourbon casks. One of those was peated.
Trivia:
- Bladnoch is one of the last three remaining active Lowland distilleries. Together with Auchentoshan and Glenkinchie it's among the last survivors of a family of dozens of Lowland distilleries. Rosebank which was closed around the same time seems far removed from ever being reopened.
- Bladnoch distillery has 11 'dunnage' warehouses.
- Bladnoch has six washbacks made of Oregon pine - but only three of those are actually used.
- The Bladnoch distillery is the Southernmost malt whisky distillery in Scotland.
- Rumour has it that production at Bladnoch was temporarily put on hold in 2008 to help cut costs.
from Malt Madness