Two Bladnoch from very different eras
Bladnoch is this wonderfully awkward distillery in the deep south of Scotland, located in a quaint little settlement called Wigtown. Still, I managed to stay there for a night that I will not quickly forget. The year was 2009 and even though most of us had already visited Scotland before, one of our friends experienced his first visit on that trip. We started off in Wigtown, where a then silent Bladnoch was his first distillery visit. Due to the lack of production in that period, we had the once in a lifetime opportunity to stand INSIDE a still. All five of us crawled inside and that was that. Needless to say, those Bladnoch stills were sizeable enough to host us. After that tour, we tasted quite a few samples from the then very popular Bladnoch Forum bottlings. These contained nice old Caol Ila (ranging between 25 and 30 years old) and interesting Port Ellen. Back at our Bed & Breakfast, we fired up the barbecue and eat steaks with our bare hands. A raw experience in every sense of the word! We slept like angels that night, and the next day we took off, to Arran, to Islay, to Campbeltown. What a trip that was! Fellow traveller and good whisky friend Fulco Bakker unearthed some shots from the Bladnoch trip, as shown here, including yours truly without beard and dreams still intact.
I lost sight of Bladnoch over the years, even though I do try to pick up the occasional sample when I can. Output from around 1990 that is nicely coming of age right now (and a few years back) can really offer something different. About the “new” or current releases I rarely hear comments, other than that pricing is ambitious on these expressions. To spar with an older vintage I recently bought from a fellow whisky enthusiast, I selected one of these newer expressions in the square bottle.
Bladnoch Alinta Reserve, vintage 2009, bottled at 46,7 % abv
First things first: This Alinta Reserve is peated Bladnoch matured on first-fill Amontillado hogsheads and produced in a batch of 2000 bottles. There is also a PX variant of this. The vintage is 2009 and this version was bottled in 2023, making it around 14 years old.
Upon Sipping: I have little experience with modern bottled Bladnoch, to be fair. The smell from the glass is everything BUT traditional lowland in style. Mostly on roasted nuts and earthen tones on the nose. Very singular, to be fair, you will not come across a style like this very often. You could even pick up some chlorine, like sitting in the swimming pool waiting area while your kid has swimming lessons. Very entertaining, really experimental. Is it good? If you like whisky that has something truly unique to offer, you might like this. But this is almost going in the direction of the Terribly Thy. Still, this is recognisable as whisky, so that is a good thing. Taking a sip, things return to a more normal experience of a whisky, with the peat more subdued now and the cask doing the heavy lifting. This results in a sour fruit and nutty experience, with on the finish the idea you are swallowing a burning piece of wood. We threw in a drop of water, to see what happens, but at times I wondered if I fell asleep and started dreaming of an Arabian doner shop. The taste turned a sweeter page, which is likeable enough.
Word to the Wise: Extremely weird but also extremely funny and totally different from anything in the Scottish single malt spectrum. For that, I have to applaud it, truly. Then I looked at the price. On the other hand, this is reasonably mature Lowland malt whisky. But the recipe makes it more of a gimmick than something you should unleash upon unsuspecting single malt drinkers.
Score: 77 points.
Bladnoch 1986, bottled at 43 % abv by The Merchant’s Collection
First things first: Not much information, other than vintage 1986 and bottled in 1998, so genuinely an old bottle! The Merchant’s Collection is an Italian bottler than in total released 31 expression. I am not sure if they are still around.
Upon Sipping: Opens surprisingly fruity but when the whiffs of peach and banana subside, there is a strong barley flavour that brushes the nostrils. The 1980s were the equivalent of the dark ages in the whisky industry, but this Bladnoch is most of all delightfully unbothered. Simple, spirit driven (almost no colour) and vanilla fuelled. On the tongue, this 12 year old Bladnoch does not perform wonders, but it does feel genuinely lowland in character, with good hints of dry porridge that you should have eaten 5 minutes before it started tasting like this. Still fine. Dry wood on the finish, and hints of floral influences, bordering on a soapy drop. That is probably due to the low abv at which this was bottled.
Word to the Wise: Simple and straightforward lowland single malt. Still, not without complexity, even though it is difficult to pin down to what I can attribute that. Maybe the old soul of it. This will be a delight on a hot summer’s day. Drop in some ice if you must.
Score: 85 points.
(Foto’s: Fulco Bakker)
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