I’ve been trying a lot of new distilleries lately, my latest is one
I’ve been looking at properly reviewing for a while now and what a way
to go about it then by trying a cask strength from the much beloved
Bladnoch distillery.
A shining star of the southernmost parts of Scotland, Bladnoch was founded in 1817 by the McClelland family. The distillery has lied in Galloway for over 2 centuries and has seen its string of successes and near demise when United Distillers closed it in the 1990s. After 1 failed attempt at a revival from a pair of brothers, it was mothballed in 2008 but sooner then later an Australian businessman named David Prior bought the distillery, becoming the first recorded Aussie to own a Scotch malt distillery, in 2009 and hired beloved Burn Stewart master distiller Ian MacMillan to chief the reborn distillery that re-started spirit production in 2017. So while I’d very much love to try the new Bladnoch spirit that’ll have to wait a long time until I make it to Galloway, until then I’m going to try some Spirit from Bladnoch’s days from when it was owned by United Distillers.
This bottling of Bladnoch from Gordon and Macphail was aged for just over 11 years in some type of oak cask and is bottled at cask strength. I've never had a cask strength Bladnoch before so let's see if this is as much of a beast as the proof gives it compared to some other mature Auchentoshan I've had in the past year.
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A really solid young Lowlander. If I was trying this blind I’d have guessed this was Auchentoshan from the brown sugar on the nose and the typical sweet citrus and grass notes on the palate but the touch of sulphur and chocolate really make this a great easy drinking dram even at nearly 59% ABV. A wonderful intro into Bladnoch and definitely worth a try if not a buy at the right price!
A shining star of the southernmost parts of Scotland, Bladnoch was founded in 1817 by the McClelland family. The distillery has lied in Galloway for over 2 centuries and has seen its string of successes and near demise when United Distillers closed it in the 1990s. After 1 failed attempt at a revival from a pair of brothers, it was mothballed in 2008 but sooner then later an Australian businessman named David Prior bought the distillery, becoming the first recorded Aussie to own a Scotch malt distillery, in 2009 and hired beloved Burn Stewart master distiller Ian MacMillan to chief the reborn distillery that re-started spirit production in 2017. So while I’d very much love to try the new Bladnoch spirit that’ll have to wait a long time until I make it to Galloway, until then I’m going to try some Spirit from Bladnoch’s days from when it was owned by United Distillers.
This bottling of Bladnoch from Gordon and Macphail was aged for just over 11 years in some type of oak cask and is bottled at cask strength. I've never had a cask strength Bladnoch before so let's see if this is as much of a beast as the proof gives it compared to some other mature Auchentoshan I've had in the past year.
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Age: 11 Years
Region: Lowlands
Cask Type(s): Oak Cask, Likely 1st or 2nd Fill Bourbon
ABV: 58.7%
Number of Bottles: Not Available
Maturation Time: Dec 1987/Sep 1999
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- Colour: Amber
- Nose: Brown sugar, light sulphur, apple, lemon citrus, plums, mandarin oranges, grass, floral, hay, barley sugar
- Palate: Warm Lemons, orange, chocolate, apple sauce, tea tannins, creamy vanilla, lime juice, toasty oak, grass, treenuts
- Finish: Medium with chocolate peanuts and juicy plums
A really solid young Lowlander. If I was trying this blind I’d have guessed this was Auchentoshan from the brown sugar on the nose and the typical sweet citrus and grass notes on the palate but the touch of sulphur and chocolate really make this a great easy drinking dram even at nearly 59% ABV. A wonderful intro into Bladnoch and definitely worth a try if not a buy at the right price!
