Bladnoch moved from one owner to the other for almost
two decades before it was actually brought back to life
again in 1956 by the Bladnoch Distillery Ltd. This company
was acquired by Ian Fisher in 1964. The number of stills
was increased from two to four in 1966, two years later.

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 (who also
rebuilt the distillery in 1871) until it was closed in 1938.

Bladnoch 1992/2002 (58.5%, James MacArtur's Old Master's, Cask #717).
Nose: Clean. Fresh. Dry and spicy at first. Hey, is that a faint hint of peat? Soft fruits as well.
Nutty - hazelnuts? Italian Christmas bread. Pleasant. Great development. Remains relatively light.
Too bad some oily notes slip in after a while. Sweeter and more alcoholic after adding some water.
Taste: Light, sweet and fruity at cask strength. Pine? Faint liquorice. Hold the water on this one.
Hint of smoke. Strangely enough the burn grows stronger with some water - not in a good way.
Score: 82 points -  lot 'fresher' than the Connoisseurs Choice bottlings I tried.

Bladnoch 11yo 1988/2000 (43%, Signatory Vintage, Bourbon cask #42003).
Nose: Grainy and a little lemony - becoming fruitier and nuttier with time. Not very powerful.
Sweetish. It presents an ever changing parade of accents, but does so in a whispering voice.
Taste: Fruity and nutty start. Very nice, although the nuttiness evolves into an oily centre.
Citrus overtones. On the other hand, the palate becomes grittier and ends in a dry, flat finish.
Score: 77 points - better than average, but not the best young Bladnoch I ever tried.

Bladnoch 1987/1999 (40%, G&M Connoisseur's Choice).
Nose: Quite oily. Malty with a whiff of pepper. Citrus? Growing sweeter. Smooth.
Hints of smoke and fruits after fifteen minutes. Seems impressive but is actually a bit shallow.
Taste: Yuck... Oily as well. Menthol freshness again. Interesting development over time.
Fruity. Gingerbread. Pine? Something sourish that might hint at a bad sherry cask?
Score: 74 points - a little oil spill in your glass...

Bladnoch 1987/1999 (58.8%, Scotch Single Malt Circle).
Nose: Sweet and lemony with some heather and flower nectar. Some organics as well.
Hey, I also found something slightly medicinal - very exciting. Very good at just 12 years.
Taste: Smooth and, again, lemony. And hey, a decent dose of peat as well after a while.
Score: 85 points - pretty much in line with Davin's and Olivier's 86 points and Serge's 87 points.

Bladnoch 1988/2001 (40%, G&M Connoisseur's Choice).
Nose: Hmm... Fresh and smooth. Malt. Light with fruity overtones. Intriguing.
Soft, early fruits. Strawberries? Apples - Granny Smith? Weak organics.
Not a lot of volume but very pleasant development over time.
Taste: Ooh... Not so nice at first. Menthol? Growing sweeter with time. Wet wood.
A powerful peppery prickle in the centre that lasts very long. Dry finish.
Score: 79 points - almost makes it to my hitlist but the taste lacks depth.

Bladnoch 12yo 1991/2003 (46%, DL McGibbons Provenance, Autumn/Winter).
Nose: Oy... Grainy and oily. Cheap vinegar? Yeast? Rotting hay & other 'farmy' aroma's.
The good thing is that this has a lot of nose - the bad thing is that it's not my style.
Faint organics. Over time, the nose settles down. This is unlike anything else I know.
Taste: Odd. Sweetish. Beer-like and a little sparkly. Rotten peanut? Bitter in the finish.
Score: 75 points - this is an average malt in my book; simply not enough character.
I guess I'll need some Lowlanders on the malt-market shelves, but not this one.

Bladnoch 14yo 1989/2003 (53.6%, Cadenhead's Authentic Collection, Bourbon barrel, 210 bottles)
Nose: Very distinctive. I was quite sure I smelled yoghurt in there and the other tasters agreed.
Then I  got milk. It was a bit malty as well, growing sweeter with time.
 also got some wonderful organics after ten minutes. What a fabulous nose!
Taste: Unfortunately, the taste wasn't quite as complex and appealing as the nose.
Soap. Bitterness drops off after five minutes. After enough time, it has a beautiful body.
Score: 84 points - nice and chewy. We decided to nickname this 'The Dairy Malt'.
 
 

Not a lot, though. One of UD's conditions for the sale of Bladnoch was
that production would not exceed 100,000 litres per year. That's more
than enough to drink yourself silly, but not really a lot compared to the
1,300,000 litres Bladnoch used to produce each year in the late 1980s.
That's why Bladnoch distillery only has two working stills these days.
Their maximum theoretical output is 250,000 litres of alcohol a year.

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 heritage center in 1993.

As you can read in the interview in MM#3 Raymond Armstrong managed to buy Bladnoch from UD 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. Fortnately, in November 2000 the first spirit of the new millennium flowed from the stills at Bladnoch.

I'll finish this profile with the eloquent answer I received from Raymond when I asked him if he would be producing a 'fully Scottish' malt whisky at Bladnoch - i.e. made from Scottish barley? This is what he 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 ;-)  Check out the interview with Raymond Armstrong for much more details...

Trivia about Bladnoch: 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.