Bladnoch 1990 20 Year Old Cask #5739

Bladnoch 26 Year Old 1990 The Nectar Anniversary Edition

Bladnoch, near Wigtown in the Lowlands, has a bit of a rough recent history. The Irishman Raymond Armstrong reopened it in 2000 but had to close it in 2014 – on the court’s order – after a dispute with his brother. The Australian business man David Prior – famous for his five:am yoghurt, a company he sold for 52 million! – bought it in 2015 and...

Score 86/100

Bladnoch SMWS 50.51 - Wedding cake and jelly babies

Like many of the lower profile Scottish distilleries, this one has had a very troubled past. Quite small (100,000L / year), it was founded by Thomas and James McClelland in 1817 on the Bladnoch River. In 1911 it was bought by an Irish company; in 1937 it went bankrupt, then was bought and sold six times in the next few years. In 1985 it was bought...

Score 81/100

Bladnoch 17 YO Californian Wine Cask Finish

Most of you reading this know that I have had a soft spot for Bladnoch since I tasted my first bottle of their 10 YO sherry-cask matured (Sheep label). In those days, I was whisky naïve and entranced by the fairy tale story of the Armstrong brothers and how they resurrected the distillery after it had been abandoned by Diageo. But then the fairy...

Score 84/100

Bladnoch 12 Year Old Sherry Cask Matured - Sheep Label

This sample came to me by my good friend and Bladnoch nut (or is that Blad-nut?) Hershl Berman. One of the slightly older bottlings (there are sheep on the label, which is kind of cool), this 12 year old was fully matured in a sherry cask. The bottle has been open for about 18 months. The colour is a deep gold. On the nose you get rich sherry...

Score 94/100