<-- Back to MM#3
The number of
active Lowland distilleries has been dropping fast over the last decades. For a while, it seemed like the Bladnoch distillery
would share the fate of Saint Magdalene and Ladyburn. Fortunately, Irishman Raymond Armstrong hopped over from Ireland to the Lowlands to rescue the Southernmost distillery of Scotland from demolition. Our interview with Raymond
turned out to be a very enlightening piece with lots of interesting information from the 'back-end' of the whisky industry.
E-pistle #03/01 - An interview with Raymond 'Bladnoch' Armstrong
by Johannes van den Heuvel, Holland
Q1 - First of all, let's establish if you are a genuine 'Malt Maniac' yourself. Raymond:
There are probably degrees of malt mania and I don't suppose anyone wants to think of himself as a maniac. We run whisky schools at Bladnoch and the people who attend could possibly be considered malt maniacs. Indeed at a recent school one of the members who had flown all the way from USA had been quite worried about his sanity. Only when he met everyone else did he discover that there were others who were probably even more intense about malt whisky than himself. He was not concerned that the whisky school might be a waste of money, only that he could think of no counter argument to the claim that he was crazy.
I like to think that I personally am not so much a malt maniac, just someone crazy enough to buy a distillery...
How crazy are you when it comes to single malt whisky?
Q2 - Well, buying your own distillery makes you an honorary malt maniac in our book. Raymond:
No, but I would have loved to have come to this industry aged 30. (I'm now 53.) In fact because of my Calvinistic upbringing in Northern Ireland I may just still have some guilt qualms about making whisky. I still own a small building and property company and some of our employees would say I have no expertise in that field either. Prior to that, as a surveyor I did bomb damage compensation work. I probably have quite extensive experience in that field but fortunately it is less necessary now in N.I.
Q3 - That sounds like a totally different walk of life. Raymond:
I have to smile to myself at the idea of finding "gainful employment" in the whisky industry. Buying a mothballed distillery and restarting production inevitably means the opposite of "gainful" employment. It all costs quite a lot of money, I like to think it is an investment or so I tell my bank manager, in other words there is at least a possibility of getting the money back.
Q4 - OK, point taken. But before we get into the intricacies of the whisky trade, we'd like to know a little more about your history as a whisky (or whiskey) drinker. Do you still remember your first dram? Raymond:
I sometimes ask this same question of people in the distillery and get a lot of different answers. Probably my first taste of whiskey was when quite young. It was out of a bottle that was kept purely for medicinal purposes for I was brought up strictly tea total. Drinking alcohol was a sin and enjoying anything, except two church services on Sunday was not permitted. Even later in my teens I don't remember the taste of alcohol making the earth move. My choice of whiskey rather than beer was probably because a whiskey glass (I live in Ireland) was smaller than a beer glass. I used to play rugby and the sight of several pints sitting in front of anyone after a match was daunting, so I chose whiskey. Very quickly I got to realise that if you are going to drink whiskey it might as well be one you enjoy. My particular choice was Redbreast a 12 YO Irish Pot Still Whiskey which was very pleasant. In fact I drank only Redbreast for quite a while until at one not to be forgotten party I mixed my drinks. Too much mixed with too many. I couldn't look at Redbreast for about 10 years.
Q5 - Ah, yes, I guess we've all been to these kinds of parties at one point or another. But apparently you've somehow managed to overcome these traumatic events. Can you describe your ultimate malt moment? Raymond:
I am perhaps a little bit unusual in that the times when I feel like drinking a malt might include for example when I am out for a walk, I love to find a wee miniature in my pocket which I planted earlier to "surprise" myself with, or when hill walking when I reach the top of a mountain and wish to reward myself - Beautiful. At lunch time if I'll have a beer with my lunch, the wee dram looks more inviting, but people sitting beside you might think you are an alcoholic.
The nicest dram you will every taste will be at cask strength on a cold January morning in a distillery cask filling store where the product is not just free from tax but free... and beautiful. Q6 - Yeah, right... Raymond:
I purchased Bladnoch in October of 1994. United Distillers had mothballed it in June 1993 along with Rosebank, Pittyvaich and Balmenach following the hostile take-over bid by Guinness of Bells and DCL. I was in South West Scotland looking for a holiday home and the distillery cottage was empty. Its location just 30 minutes drive from the ferry to Ireland was ideal. When I first asked UD to sell it they were a little surprised.
At the time I was able to justify the price which as usual I didn't have, by the possibility of converting some of the stone buildings into additional holiday accommodation to rent. I work as a Chartered Surveyor in the building trade in
Northern Ireland. The distillery land extends along the river for about 2 miles and we have fishing rights and planning permission for caravanning/camping. So it was sold to me as property not as a distillery. If the truth be known I got the
title deeds and my bank manager got the debt. One of the conditions of sale was that it should not be used as a distillery. Q7 - Is that so, Raymond? Raymond:
There's no short answer to this question, but a distillery is an interesting building. As a builder I have redeveloped quite a variety of buildings and whilst I love old stone and slate roofed buildings, I'm not usually too sentimental about them. In the case of Bladnoch, although a great deal of plant and equipment had been removed when it was closed down, the stills and washbacks and major items remained intact. Try walking through a distillery at night and it can nearly talk to you. If Prince Charles can talk to plants I can listen to my distillery. There is the noise of the water running underneath, the noise of the copper stills cooling in the night air (even when the distillery is mothballed), the noise of old timbers creaking. It's almost like a living thing, that just needs a little bit of human effort, to make it go and to reward you with its' wonderful spirit.
But most other malt maniacs are content with consuming and discussing single malts, leaving
the production to 'the experts'. Did you have any previous experience in the whisky production or trade?
After pilot, fireman and porn star, running a distillery must be high on the list of dream jobs for boys of all ages. But few would go as far as buying an airline or a movie
studio to find gainful employment.
Buy a distillery and find out for yourself...
Assuming I ever got the funding together, I still wouldn't know where to start. But maybe I could pick up some useful pointers from somebody who actually lived through
the rebirth of a distillery. Somebody like..., well, somebody like you, actually. Can you tell us something more about why and how you acquired Bladnoch?
Then how is it that Bladnoch operates as a distillery today?
Q8 - Ooh, you're getting all mushy and poetical on us here... ;-) Raymond:
The short answer is that although I bought the distillery with a restrictive covenant preventing distillation, there was a considerable amount of local pressure to reopen. If you live in a rural community like Galloway it's difficult to remain divorced from it, even if you only bought the place intending it to be a holiday home. I wasn't responsible for closing the distillery, but for nearly two hundred years it has played an important part in the life of this area. I don't think anyone would be permitted to own it without discharging some obligations to the community. In the end I made a New Year resolution to try to get permission to reopen. I'm happy to say that the community was right and United Distillers agreed.
Q9 - Hurray! Galloway sounds like a great place to live. Raymond:
The practical problem was obvious. United Distillers had closed the place and cannibalised it to ensure that it would never again operate as a distillery. All electrical equipment had been removed, shafts cut in half, mash tun floor, pumps, valves, heat exchangers, pipes etc. everything removed except stills and washbacks. The other more difficult problem was negotiating the removal of the restrictive covenant to permit small scale production. We are only permitted to distill 100,000 litres compared to the 1.3 million litres Bladnoch produced in the late 1980s. This doesn't represent a problem as I couldn't afford to produce any more than that amount unless I was permitted to sell it to a blender. In some ways the reduction in numbers of small independent distilleries also affects the smaller blenders because they have difficulty getting malts. Most of the larger companies prefer now to be self sufficient. They don't want to either buy from outside their own organisations or sell to outsiders.
I succeeded in the first instance because I didn't know what I was letting myself in for. I had basically to rebuild the place and to do so with limited financial
resources. If I had been more knowledgeable about what was involved I might have been less willing to try. I also succeeded because I was determined to succeed. I am a keen hill walker and there is an appropriate Chinese proverb which
says "A snail can climb the highest mountain, - slowly" If you are on the top of a mountain in Scotland in winter, cold, tired and wet, you have got to get yourself back down to comfort. There is little point in
complaining. The difficulties we encountered were only difficulties, they were not life threatening. I also succeeded because of the thought that two local farmers, T. & A. McClelland, were able to succeed in 1817 with much fewer resources
than were available to me.
And what if there were a short answer?
So now you had the permission you needed. Even so, I imagine it must have been very tough to start things up again from scratch. What problems did you encounter and, more
importantly, how did you succeed?
If I was large enough I'd probably do the same.
It is also true that I succeeded (we succeeded) not least because I had the help of our stillman John Herries who had worked in
Bladnoch for over 10 years and was keen to see the place operational again. I also was fortunate that in a large organisation like UDV there was at least one human being among senior staff, a gentleman called Dr. Alan Rutherford who could see no reason for not allowing small scale production at Bladnoch if their was anyone crazy enough to try. Without his help and that of his company it would not have been possible and both have my gratitude.
And think on this; Is it not a wonderful industry that still makes it possible for a small individual with limited resources to purchase a distillery, reinstate it, and enter the market of the wonderful world beating product that Scotch
whisky represents. To quote the immortal bard: "I sing the juice Scotch bere can make us, In glass or jug. Oh thou my muse! Guid auld Scotch drink!" Q10 - Oh, boy, there you go again Raymond. Raymond:
Unfortunately we only restarted production in December 2000 so it will be a long time before we see the product through to fruitition. In fact we were a little bit superstitious. I really wanted the year 2000, the new millennium not to be over without Bladnoch having distilled. I wanted to think that Bladnoch entered the new century and millennium optimistically. The December distillation took place before all the permissions were signed up. I pleaded "Irish" ignorance and was lucky. We have however casks of 10yo and 13 yo Bladnoch.
Q11 - I don't suppose these were forgotten and abandoned casks you discovered at distillery? Raymond:
Alas no. The only spirit we discovered at the Bladnoch was about 200 litres which had slept in the pipes since closure in 1993. At first when we opened the valves we thought it was caustic used for cleaning. I can confirm that 7 years in a stainless steel pipe is nowhere near as good as 7 years in wood. Nonetheless I felt obliged to try to syphon it out and when it accidentally entered my mouth I felt obliged to swallow it. I was brought up not to waste anything...
The 10yo and 13yo casks were generously offered for sale to me by Dr. Bill Lumsden of Glenmorangie. Q12 - Hmmm - The 'Bladnoch 7yo Stainless Steel Limited Edition' sounds like the kind of bottling a real malt maniac would love to try,
but I guess we'll have to settle for the casks you mentioned. When those casks are bottled, I guess the bottles will be the first 'official' Bladnochs released in almost a decade. Have you decided on issues like age, strength, filtration and
colouring yet? Raymond:
We had planned to use the last whiskyschool group to select some casks for bottling and we are also in the middle of sorting out a new label which is not an easy task. John McDougall and John Glaser of Compassbox have also promised me some expert help in tasting. In the meantime I just do some practice tastings by myself. To bring a mercenary note to the question. Things like age, strength etc. are taking second place at the moment to matters such as bottling costs, packaging costs etc. Also we have only just completed on the Customs and Excise paperwork because (although our warehouses were registered to receive whisky which we produced at Bladnoch) additional registrations were required to bring in whisky from another warehouse, even though it was Bladnoch. Overall I have a lot to learn.
Q13 - Well, you seem to be on the right track. Raymond:
I think we are unlikely to sell Bladnoch at less than 8yo. Arrans' case was slightly different. As a new distillery they had nothing older to sell and people were keen to sample the new taste. We restarted production in December 2000 after being mothballed in June 1993, so the youngest of the former stock will be 15 when the new produce is 8yo. We might decide to bottle some stocks of 10yo and 12yo and leave them in bond (which is obviously cheaper) to ensure that in the future we have something younger than 15.
Incidentally at one of our whiskyschools we did a peated Bladnoch at about 22 parts per million instead of our usual 3ppm. That certainly brought a different smell to the distillery. We also give the spirit a bit more time in the copper now
than in the Bells and UD era when the stillmen were always under pressure to complete distilling on time before the next shift arrived. The distillery was working three eight hour shifts. Also on one or two occasions we have changed our
distilling technique with some interesting results. We keep notes on any changes that might influence particular casks. Q14 - Yes, about those casks. Even the finest of spirits can easily be ruined if you put it in the wrong cask. What
type of casks do you use for the new whisky - and why? Raymond:
We are not producing whisky to be used in a blend, so we can have a variety of casks. Blenders would probably want more consistency. That said it's important that we retain the traditional citrussy notes typical of a Lowland malt and bourbon casks generally compliment and enhance Bladnoch. We also purchased some very good quality sherry butts. Even at 18 months old the spirit from a 6 year old sherry hogshead has achieved a wonderful colour. The young wood, 6 year old means it breaths well and the impregnation with a good quality sherry for that period should produce interesting results. On the other hand it may be overly powerful for Bladnoch and we might have to recask the whisky in a few years.
I have received a lot of assistance in the purchasing of casks from Gordon Motion who works in the quality control department of Edrington (Famous Grouse, Macallan, Glengoyne) In large companies a lot of managers get moved around to gain
experience. As a result many well known distillery managers have spent time at Bladnoch and are genuinely pleased at its survival. Ian Henderson of Laphroaig, and Ian Millar of Glenfiddich to name but two. Gordon Mitchell of Arran has also
been very helpful, as has Ian McMillen of Burn Stewart. Q15 - Hmm, it sounds like genuine Scottish sweat is part of the new Bladnoch recipe. Now let's talk about another important ingredient. Are you producing a 'fully Scottish' malt at
Bladnoch, with Scottish barley? Raymond:
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!
We buy our malt from Simpsons of Berwick on Tweed, variety 'Optic' or 'Chariot'. We hope in the autumn to be sourcing it from a farmer at Garlieston 6 miles from the distillery. He has an organic farm and although I have no real preference
for organically grown barley, I am pleased to be able to use a local product. It will cost us very slightly more but then because of our small scale production, most of our costs are slightly higher, probably £2 per litre of alcohol as against
perhaps £1.30. Q16 - I imagine that's not the only disadvantage you have compared to larger companies. As a small, independent distillery you have to compete with 'the big boys'. How will you put Bladnoch on the map again?
Raymond:
I think it is much easier now for a small company to compete. Websites and internet selling offers us the chance to put our product directly in front of people in their own homes. In how many big distilleries can you speak at night directly to the owner or to the stillman? In our case he is probably the person who next day will be wrapping up your bottle. Malt drinkers are an unusual customer in that they are often prepared to go to great lengths to obtain a product, to research it, to know where, how and by whom it is produced. It is no longer essential to have huge marketing budgets. Having said that, I think that large companies can do a great deal for the industry. They can advertise the product to new markets and they don't have to obtain an immediate return on their expenditure. They should be able to plan for the long term. The disadvantage is that whisky may not be their only product. Do they promote a long term product like malt whisky or do they please today's' shareholders by producing gin today that they can sell tomorrow, or perhaps the choice includes selling more beefburgers?
As regards putting Bladnoch on the map again, because of our limited resources, (that just means we haven't much money) we are permanently short of staff, particularly clerical staff. We put our money into production rather than marketing
but at the end of the day selling our product is going to be very important to us. We can't simple arrive 6 or 7 years down the road and expect to be recognised in the marketplace, but it is difficult. Things like whiskyschools, tasting
events, and most importantly for us, free publicity like this article, for which I am grateful, keep us in the public eye. Our Visitor Centre gets about 25,000 visitors each year. Rather surprisingly we get quite a lot of free
television. In July for example a few episodes from a series called '2000 Acres of Sky' is being filmed at Bladnoch. The producer got no "Brownie" points from me for saying he "needed a rather dilapidated old distillery".
He tried to retract the insult by saying his make up people would have to do some work on the buildings. Q17 - You told us you were only allowed to distill 100.000 litres a year - that's roughly 140.000 bottles. Not a whole lot,
considering it will have to nourish thousands of Bladnoch lovers around the world. Do you plan on targeting specific markets in the future? Raymond:
Is this a trick question to test my maths or have I been giving my bank manager incorrect figures? Our 100,000 ola's is based on original litres of alcohol at 100% i.e. "pure alcohol" not at the 40% figure you used. We lose about 2% per annum in evaporation, which after 10 years should leave us about 80,000 litres measured at 100%, or 186,046 litres at 43% equivalent to 265,780 70cl bottles. Put another way our 100,000 ola's will be reduced in strength by the addition of water and filled into the casks at 63.5% abv. This will require 630 hogsheads each with 250 bulk litres. In reality with leakage and other losses including theft you could find yourself averaging as little as 30 cases of 12 i.e. 360 bottles @ 43% from each hogshead. Recently we regauged 20 of our 13yo hoggies and they averaged 114 litres of alcohol (equivalent to 378 70cl bottles @ 43%).
There lurks a poet in the hart of every Irishman ;-)
So, with the help of John Herries and Alan Rutherford you managed to revive the distillation tradition at Bladnoch. When did you start production again at Bladnoch, and are bottlings of
the whisky you produced already available?
We've been talking about the old stuff, but what about the new product distilled since 2000? The new Arran distillery put a single malt on the market as soon as it was legally possible -
after only three years of maturation. Theoretically, we could see a new Bladnoch on the shelves in 2004.
Q18 - Oops, my mistake. But since you brought it up: it seems to be common practise nowadays to dilute the fresh spirit before it is casked - in your case to 63.5%. Why is
that? I'm
absolutely crazy about the UD Rare Malts Saint Magdalene 19yo 1979/1998, which comes in the bottle at a whopping 63.8% after 19 years in wood. This leads me to believe this malt must have been casked at well over 70%. What are your thoughts on this?
Raymond:
I'm not sure I can answer your question other than to say that it's the traditional strength of filling at Bladnoch, but tradition only goes back to living memory. At a strength of 63.5% rather than the original 70% the spirit requires more casks and more storage space, consequently there does not appear to be a cost benefit. The strength of a 19 year old Bladnoch will obviously be influenced by the filling strength, time in wood and the evaporation levels (influenced by cask size and type, condition, number of previously fillings, warehouse conditions etc.)
In fact your Saint Magdalene was (I think) only distilled twice and is unlikely to have been filled much above 70%. Ignoring the maths, if the whisky turns out
exceptionally good I might just retire and drink it myself. If it's bad I may have to drink it myself. There should still be some middling quality stuff left for the rest of the world. Seriously though I think as a very small producer we would
be most effective by concentrating on the UK and perhaps one or two European countries which are the most accessible. Q19 - Like Holland, for example? Raymond:
Living in Northern Ireland I didn't have the opportunity in my youth to travel in the same way as people living on continental Europe. Even after just one visit to the Whisky Festival at The Hague (and despite having no experience in marketing or promotion) we get more interest in our whisky from Holland than any other country outside the UK. Interest includes both visitors to our website and visitors to the distillery. I might add that people are not just interested in our whisky but they are also interested in the distillery and in us, its' employees, which is nice.
A small business like Bladnoch is naturally keen to raise its' profile in Europe. Holland with a high standard of living, and where most people speak English and seem to me to be quite similar in character, (even if not as good at football
as Ireland who are still playing in the world cup) is an obvious choice. Bladnoch is only about three and a half hours drive from Newcastle and the ferry to IJmuiden. Ryanair and Easyjet do flights from Amsterdam to Prestwick about one and
half hours drive from the distillery. They also do a cheap car hire package. So despite being located in a rather remote part of Scotland, we are more accessible than many other distilleries. Q20 - I'm sure a lot of 'single malt pilgrims'
will be glad to know that. And I guess the Whisky School you run at the distillery would be another excuse to drop by. Can you tell us a little more about that? Raymond:
The whiskyschools have been attended by a wide range of people from all over the world, both sexes and all ages. Usually we meet for dinner on Thursday night in the pub opposite the distillery. First thing Friday morning we mash in under the supervision of John our stillman and John McDougall who is our resident expert. On Saturday we distill the wash that was mashed in on the previous Wednesday and was fermenting during Thursday & Friday. On Sunday they select casks and fill them and put them in the warehouse. All this including talks, tastings, cleaning etc. I have not yet managed to get them involved in the "managerial" work performed by the distillery owner, i.e. cutting grass, painting --- the list is endless! And there's more good news, the participants pay £300 for this doubtful "privilege". I was wondering if anyone would be interested in taking part in a "building" school in Ireland, learning to drive a wheelbarrow etc.
Essentially it is very enjoyable and I hope when everyone goes back home they will bore there friends to death talking about Bladnoch. See Q21 - And now for something completely different: A little bird told us that you have been secretly stockpiling the Loch Dhu 10yo. Will you
be serving it at the Whisky School as an example how a single malt SHOULDN'T taste? Raymond:
I feel a little bit guilty about all the scorn that is heaped on Loch Dhu - including by yourself Johannes! I've tasted it once or twice but even the sales rep selling it to me referred to it as an RBB (Rough as a Badgers Bum) He was a big strapping Highlander and I didn't like to be so indelicate as to enquire how he had come to obtain this rather detailed knowledge.
It's true that I did buy rather a lot of Loch Dhu when I heard production was stopping.
Although filling at a higher strength gives you more bottling options I am considering the opposite i.e. filling a few casks at a variety of low strengths. I personally prefer to sip my whisky without adding water and can do so up to a
strength of about 50%. Fill at 50% and you may find your cask strength in 10 years below 40% and not capable of being sold as whisky. I sampled a 10 yo Bladnoch recently which came out of the cask at just 50% abv. I have no idea why its
strength was so low but it tasted delicious.
Why then after 19 years was the evaporation level so modest?
In our
warehouse even after just 18 months there is a noticeable difference in maturation of spirit held in 500 litre butts compared to the 200 barrels. The butts are developing more slowly. Recently I was considering purchasing some good
quality sherry butts from a bodega in Spain. I was put off by the fact that their capacity was about 625 litres.
There was a possibility that a man of my age might not see the benefits.
Unfortunately it all sold out rather quickly in our shop, hopefully not in preference to Bladnoch.
I have to say that I wish I had kept it, for it sells regularly in McTears auction at a very good premium.
Q22 - Don't get me started on Loch Dhu 10yo. And let me assure you I'm
not the only one with strong feelings about this malt. When I served it
during this year's 'Midsummernight's Dram' in Holland it ignited a lengthy discussion about the extreme treatment they must have given the poor casks to produce this 'Aqua Crematoria'. Raymond: At Bladnoch I'm considering some experimentation on placing emphisis on differences in distilling techniques as well as on wood. Springbank does this through double distillation, triple
distillation, and two and a half times but I think with the flexibility available to small distilleries this can be successfully carried much further. For example if I was to offer you two minatures of Bladnoch and the label read that one was
taken from the earlier part of the run, say from 74% down to a cut at 67% and the second was from the second part of the run 67% down to say 60% which would you buy? I suspect some malt maniacs might want to buy both, because they not only
enjoy a good whisky but they have become almost obsessed by taste and the detailed information relating to taste analysis. It's amazing to see how malt maniacs are not just curious about taste, but also interested in acquiring every detail on
how the taste was created. It is ironic that distillers strive for consistency and then seek to offer different expressions through a wood policy. Almost 90 malt distilleries offering a wide range of tastes and still we seek more...
Q23 - Well, I for one am glad that Bladnoch is one of those 90 surviving distilleries. Raymond:
I think that in choosing a bottling I am less likely to use the usual taste criteria. I would have difficulty not being influenced by political factors. I should really say "all UDV bottlings are best" because they are, but also because they hold the largest amounts of Bladnoch stocks some of which I have been unsuccessfully trying to persuade them to sell. I probably would choose the UDV 10 YO Flora and Fauna bottling, not for any of the normal taste reasons although I think it's a really delicious dram but because in many ways it represents the continuity and survival of Bladnoch and particularly during the next six or seven years. The closure during the UDV period of ownership was desperately traumatic. They bought the distillery, they expanded it, they closed it, they cannibalised it, vandalised it and they sold it, with a restriction that it should never again distill. In fairness they later removed a restrictive covenant once again making production possible, and did so without payment of a single pound/euro. In addition they sold me back some plant and equipment without which I would have found it impossible to reopen.
For a reason equally nothing to do with taste I am a little reluctant to promote the more recently introduced UDV Rare Malts Bladnoch, again a most wonderful dram. To me it denoted not so much an expression of an old rare whisky from a fine
operational distillery but rather the last exploitation of a distillery that had been "put down" for purely financial reasons. I have unsuccessfully requested on their www.raremalts.com website, if they would indicate that we are
once again distilling and possibly even indicate our opening times or telephone numbers or a link to our website
Considering the new product won't be bottled for another few years, Bladnoch fans will have to make do with the bottlings that are available today for a
while longer. If you had to 'paint a picture' of your distillery with three bottles that best represent what Bladnoch is all about, which current bottlings would you choose - and why?
Q24 - OK, let me rephrase my last question: What would be your personal choice? Raymond:
When it comes to personal choice I have to declare Bladnochs' independence and individuality. My choice will always be a bottling from one of the many independent bottlers whose efforts have largely ensured that Bladnoch has remained in the marketplace and at affordable prices. These as you know include Signatory, Cadenheads, James McArthur and Gordon & MacPhails.
In the early part of the last century Bladnoch traded under the name T&A McClelland and their label included the boldly printed letters ESS (Extra Strong Scotch) So give me a good quality cask strength dram and I will give
you a happy man. I want to finish if I may with a quote from Brian Townsend in Scotch Missed, Lost Distilleries of Scotland. "It is somehow impossible not to feel a special regret at the demise of Bladnoch. Among the 100 or more
distilleries chronicled in this book, few can match it for the richness of its history and its stubborn ability to survive for so long against such odds. Bladnoch is one distillery about which a small novel could be written rather than the
brief pen portrait given here. So much about it is noteworthy - and is still today rated as a distilling gem. The rarer sherried examples which occasionally come to light are exceptional by any standards"
OK, Raymond, on that lyrical note
I'd like to thank you for your time and wish you lots of luck in making Bladnoch a success once more. I'm quite sure you will succeed. Johannes van den Heuvel - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Certified Malt Maniac
Click HERE for an overview of other articles in MM#3.
Overview of interviews:
Malt Maniacs #1 - Derek M. Gilchrist
Malt Maniacs #2 - Mark Reynier
Malt Maniacs #3 - Raymond Armstrong
Malt Maniacs #4 - Olivier Humbrecht
Malt Maniacs #5 - Keir Sword