Bladnoch Distillery

[Big Jets]

Was on You Tube last night looking for a Van Morrison track (Celtic New Year).and found this wee gem for the whisky lover.Cant post it not a you tube member.

 

[G.C.]

This clip?
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Dont need to be a member, just copy the "embed" and paste direct into the thread.

 

[Big Jets]

Thanks GC I will have to learn .Im a technophobe ,and a lazy cnut.No a bad wee clip all the same.

 

[wully]

Arse!

Says " This video is no longer available"

My uncle used to work there.

 

[G.C.]

Another version.

Version without the Van Morrison soundtrack.
<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QMpkoFP6me4&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QMpkoFP6me4&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

Not sure why first one went like that

 

[Deleted account rno]

I can still view them both.

Good clips

 

[R1200GSA]

Meee Tooooo.

 

[wully]

S' wurkin now

Fine tasting stuff- had a bottle a few years back

It's not often seen- does most of it go for blending?

 

[SpyInTheCamp]

It's a lovely little distillery. Brought back to life a few years ago by a chap called Raymond Armstrong. Good to see some independents in the industry.

I had a cracking trip there and back on the GS in 2006. Went along the Solway coast to Whithorn. Well worth doing as it is a part of the country that many overlook. Detials here http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86166&highlight=solway

If you are interested in whisky and Bladnoch in particular, they have an active forum at www.bladnoch.co.uk. There are benefits in being a forum member. In November, Raymond bottled a 25 year old cask of Port Ellen and sold it to forum members at a very good price.

Kai

 

[SpyInTheCamp]

It's not often seen- does most of it go for blending?

The following comes from the Royal Mile Whiskies web site. The short answer is that it was used for blending until it closed in the early '90s.

Background: Bladnoch’s history up to 1993 had been turbulent, and UDV’s decision to close Dumfries and Galloway’s only distillery was driven by perceived over-production, and the cost of transport. Raymond Armstrong, an Irish property developer, bought the large site in 1994, as a potential holiday home, but with a view to developing some of the estate. Part of contract of the sale was an agreement not to distil, but upon getting to know the locals, Raymond had a strong change of heart. After extensive negotiations with UD, a covenant preventing him from distilling was removed, and he was sold equipment in order to resume production again. Then came the creation of Diageo, and Raymond was told that 'things had moved on'. Thankfully, an agreement was reached, and Bladnoch is permitted to produce 100,000 litres per annum. Production resumed late in 2000, and Raymond has employed stillman John Herrries, who worked at Bladnoch under Bell’s and UD. Notable innovations have been the small-scale production of a peated spirit (18-22ppm) and a whisky school, where students end three days tuition by filling a cask with spirit they have made. Running a distillery, Raymond says, is about 'lots of obstacles, learning, more difficulties and from time to time small surges of great pleasure'.

Distillery Visit
Raymond was on holiday, but we were ably looked after by Sue Sellers, who runs the Visitor Centre and gave a fascinating access-all-areas tour. Touring distilleries is all about the little differences; the idiosyncracies that may or may not affect flavour, but certainly add to the character of the place. At Bladnoch the most striking feature is the lade, or man-made channel, which diverts freshwater from the River Bladnoch right below the floor of the mash-house. This is needed because the river is still tidal and therefore salty up to a point half a mile further upstream. The stretch of water is fished by an otter, and animals seem to be everywhere at Bladnoch. There is the Barn Owl that roosts in the out-of-use stables, and the swallows that were flitting through the wooden eaves above our heads in the mash-house. They perched above 6 handsome and huge Oregon Pine washbacks, of which only two are used and filled to two-thirds capacity at a time. There is still the potential to kiln malt again at Bladnoch, and happily the pagoda-roof is in excellent condition, probably having been replaced just before the sale. Raymond’s ultimate dream would be to reinstate the malting process at Bladnoch, using a locally grown organic barley. The stillhouse also has charm in abundance, with stills with large boil balls, and a spirit still that must have previously been a wash still, given that it still has redundant portholes. Among the relic sample bottles with moulding labels from the days of Bells’ ownership, there are labels marked ‘Isle of Ronansay spirit’. These were props left on site from the filming of ‘2,000 Acres of Sky’, in which the distillery starred alongside Michelle Collins. Casks stencilled with the same name lie in the courtyard, and caused concern to my Japanese companion, who thought there was a new distillery he hadn’t tried or even heard about!



Bladnoch is blessed with a tradional dunnage warehouse, with modest rows of casks stacked two-high. The new Bladnoch spirit has been filled into various woods, and a small sign detailing these caught our eye as it listed a Vendemia cask. The process was described as follows 'filled with grape must and fermentation allowed to take place. Refilled with wine (usually Oloroso) and kept in a bodega.' Is this what you hear referred to as a ‘wine-treated’ cask?

Beside this charming warehouse, there is an extensive area of more modern warehousing stretching back across the hillside. These were emptied in 1993 when Diageo left, and I couldn’t help thinking what a sad few days that must have been; to see Bladnoch be emptied of the liquid stocks which had taken years to build up, and trucked up to the central belt of Scotland. Looking at the vastness of the disused warehouses, you realise the differences in scale of a boutique distillery: in the last year of production before closure in 1993, 1.3 million litres of alcohol were produced. Raymond has been gradually buying back enough of this stock to enable him to sell a product until his own stocks are mature. About 30 mature casks lie ready for bottling, and more due to arrive soon, it is pleasing to see enough casks to keep the RMW shelves stocked until the era of the new Bladnoch.

Much of the Bladnoch story is about community. The Wigtown community which laid such a guilt-trip on Raymond he felt duty-bound to distil. Besides the kudos of being a distilling town, the distillery has become a focus of Wigtown; a place for Ceilidhs and weddings in the old filling store, and other events outside on the handsome lawns. The raft-race is now a yearly fixture, this year taking place on 4th July, and begins from the shore at the edge of the distillery grounds and ends at Wigtown Harbour. Now there is a web-based, markedly international community which regularly chats on the Bladnoch discussion board about whisky and other matters. These friendly folk seem to be past visitors who fell in love with the place during a tour, and genuinely seem determined to return.

Sue Sellers herself was one of the happy campers and caravanners who Raymond welcomes to stay in the distillery grounds. She came on holiday for two weeks, and ended up staying with her husband for much longer, now as Visitor Centre Manager. There are now 25,000 visitors a year passing through, an impressive figure given that Dumfries and Galloway seems strangely, and rather pleasantly, free from the convoys of tourists found in the Borders, Highlands and Islands. I strongly urge you to be one of those visitors in the future: you will find a homely, welcoming distillery at the centre of a historic and interesting community. As I bought my bottle of malt, I felt more than glad that every penny of profit would stay within the immediate area.

 

[wully]

My relly "The Young Fella" dragged a large salmon out of the lade many years ago when he worked there- I'm going to see if the photos of him posing with it is in with all my folks pictures I inherited...