Whisky Distilled

Yesterday, we reached a milestone – visiting all the whisky distilleries in one region! Okay, so the region concerned is the Lowlands, and okay, so this wasn’t too difficult a task given that it only contains three working distilleries. But still… if one considers that those three distilleries are spread out over a large region, requiring miles and miles and hours and hours of driving, then I think it could be considered quite a feat.

That’s my take on it, anyway, and I’m sticking to it!

The distillery in question that completed our triumvirate of Lowlanders is Bladnoch, situated in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland’s picturesque south-western region.

Bladnoch Distillery itself was as pretty as promised, its beauty highlighted by the sun that came out to greet us as we arrived. Excellent timing, after what had been a slightly damp drive down.

The inside of the distillery is perhaps not as glitzy and sparkling as others, though rather than detract from Bladnoch’s charm, this adds to it. Sometimes distilleries tidy themselves up so much for the tourists that they lose some of their authenticity in the process.

A highlight, as with Auchentoshan, was getting a glimpse into Bladnoch’s warehouse, where Cask 001 sits patiently, doing its thing… like many other people, we’re looking forward to tasting some of that when Raymond Armstrong decides it’s ready!

In the meantime, we had to console ourselves with some of Bladnoch’s 7 year old, produced under Raymond Armstrong’s ownership, along with some of the distillery’s 16 year old and 18 year old, from Bladnoch’s earlier production.

For a young whisky, the 7 year old was surprisingly good. Much, much better than we expected, and better possibly than the 16 year old. This bodes very well indeed. Of all three, however, the 18 year old was our favourite – with a nutty, caramel-y, toffee-y flavour, how could we resist? A bottle now sits very comfortably in our collection, thank you very much!

If you, too, would like to taste some of Bladnoch’s whisky, you can buy a bottle here.

Visit our page on Bladnoch Distillery for more information on the history of this Lowlander.

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Posted: Monday, August 17th, 2009 @ 1:44 pm
Categories: Distilleries.
Tags: Bladnoch, Galloway, Lowlands.
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