Bladnoch 10-Year-Old "Celebrating 200 Years" A Review

Bladnoch 10-Year-Old Bourbon Expression, 46.7% abv. Price NIS 240

Bladnoch Distillery

Bladnoch distillery can boast being the lowest of the Lowland distilleries on the map. Actually, looking on the map, it is roughly parallel to Newcastle in England. (Having stated this, distilleries seem to be popping up all over the place so quickly in Scotland that I wouldn’t be surprised if they lost the title soon). They have a brand new visitor’s centre which was dafka completed and opened the very week of this review.

How to get there

From Carlisle you take the A74(M), then exit onto the A75 to Newton Stewart and then head south on the A714 to Bladnoch.

A few things about the history of the distillery

The rather turbulent history of the distillery goes all the way back to 1817. It closed in 1907 and saw a few attempts to distil again on and off until 1937 when all the equipment was taken away and it seemed as if the distillery had closed for good. Then in 1956 it was reequipped and started production once again. For the next 50 years, Bladnoch went through many different ownerships. The distillery was often closed and finally mothballed by its then current owner, United Distillers, in 1993. It was bought up yet again and sporadic production began in 2000. However, after releasing a number of single malts the distillery was liquidated in 2014 and it seemed as if it was finally the end of the road for Bladnoch. However, the Australian entrepreneur David Prior purchased the distillery in 2015 and began a massive investment project to transform Bladnoch into a premium brand craft/farm distillery. David hired an expert team including Ian Macmillan as distillery manager, fresh from his success of transforming the fortunes of the three Burn Stewart distilleries (Tobermory, Bunnahabhain and Deanston). Ian refurbished the distillery and completed the branding transformation and its dramatic revival in 2017. He left the company however in 2018 to set up his own consultancy firm but remains in close contact with Bladnoch. Bladnoch celebrated its 200^th anniversary last year with a few “limited” releases, one of which is this 10-Year-Old Bourbon Cask I am reviewing here.

Packaging and Design

Strangely, the packaging of the bottle I purchased here in Israel looks nothing like the box shown on the UK online whisky shop sites. My one seems a lot posher!

Master Of Malt Picture

You can tell from the first glance, that no effort or expense has been spared in the design and manufacturing materials of this stunningly handsome bottle and packaging. It is an absolute masterpiece in product design. If I had any say within the whisky industry, I’d nominate this for a Scottish design award.

Leather look

I could not find a single design fault with the packaging and bottle and found many unique design features, both aesthetically pleasing as well as others, ergonomically brilliant. It is truly a wonder to behold.

The semi open box design (similar to Gordon and MacPhail or Glenrothes) is made from some kind of hard solid material which I initially mistook for thin wood covered in leather but on closer examination, must be some kind of plastic and card compound.

Looking at the overall design of both the bottle and case, there really does seem to be conscious attempt to combine practicality of materials and maximum bottle protection. At Bladnoch, they seem to have hit on the perfect balance. There is no rattle within the box whatsoever. The bottle is so firmly secured that you can lift the bottle half way up and it will sit there perfectly still, yet it is not so tight as to make it difficult to remove or replace the bottle in its case. I wouldn’t actually try it but I am confident that if one dropped the box off the table onto a tiled floor, the bottle would survive perfectly in tacked.
The cork stopper is chunky and wide with the Bladnoch emblem emblazed on the top.

The inside of the black box which partially exposes the bottle from the front, is lined with a polished bronze coloured layer. This has the effect that when the bottle is placed inside the container and the light hits it, it emits a beautiful bronzes glow through the bottle as if the box has some kind of electric backlighting. This is really-really clever.

The top lid consists of a thick foam padded lid with magnet lock.

The bottle itself is actually similar to the Golan Heights Distillery bottle, whereas the Israeli Whisky bottle is more rounded, the Bladnoch bottle is more of a cube. Just like the Golan Heights bottle, this bottle also sits on a solid chunky glass base. Interestingly, the females at our Shabbos table all remarked that it reminded them of a large bottle of fancy perfume. I can certainly see what they mean.

The whole package simply radiates style and class and is the first design to get the (newly created) Reb Mordechai Reviews Gold Design Award!

Unfortunately, the text which they have printed on the bottle is less impressive. It's full of what I'd term "marketing waffle" which doesn't really tell you much. It does however include some tasting notes but I found them a touch blasé? It includes the statement "...smooth but intense expression, delicate sweet and spicy citrus with a clean refreshing finish".

Rather than give us useful information about the type of casks used or the unique way in which Bladnoch uses its stills to produce its unique distillate, or include more insightful tasting notes, it instead describes its whisky as "smooth"! It's a "Chafif" (difficult to translate but means something like lazy, casual not making much of an effort, "can't be bothered"), kind of  word when it comes to describing a whisky.
We all understand what it means when you describe, say, a piece of wood as smooth, but when using the term metaphorically to describe an alcoholic drink, it can be understood as meaning that the whisky is not harsh and lacks a spirit burn in the throat and therefore agreeable and pleasant in a general way; but it can also have a negative connotation of being unexceptional, mellow, mild, bland and boring. Similar to soda water or Cola, it is something best avoided when it comes to single malt whisky.
The Hebrew Label

Thankfully, the Israeli importers, which I have translated as "Superior A.M. Importers", have very kindly placed their Hebrew label on the side of the bottle in a free place, and not, as many annoyingly do, on top of the original English label. I am grateful for this.

Embarrassingly, they have however made a real “pig’s ear” of the distillery’s name, calling it:

בלנדוך                   “BlanDoch”

instead of

בלדנוך                  “Bladnoch”


Now, whenever I have criticised Hebrew Import labels in the past, I have always assumed that it was the Israeli importers who printed out the labels and stuck them on the bottles. It is the importers who I blamed for sticking the labels over the originals. However, whilst speaking to both "Superior A.M. Importers and a Bladnoch distillery representative, I have been made aware that (at least in this case), it is the bottling plant in Scotland which prints and affixes the Hebrew labels! The text of the label however, obviously comes from the importers and they are responsible for its contents.

In an email correspondence with the distillery representative Will Pitchforth (See below for more details), he very kindly promised to see that the error was corrected for the next run which he said would be in August 2019.

The curious case of the Fake Glencairn glasses

An odd thing. The wine store chain from which I purchased this Bladnoch, namely “Banna Mashkaot”, (which has a number of branches including one in Jerusalem and one in Gush Etzion, which is where I purchased this bottle), were also selling some glasses with the Bladnoch name etched on them, alongside the whisky.

The problem is that these were those cheap Chinese fake Glencairn lookalike knockoffs you see being sold in many Israeli wine stores, usually in boxes of six, labelled “Master Blender Crystal Glass” glasses.

Genuine polished glass of the Glencairn on left. Dull looking fake on the right.

Clear polished glass on left. Dull poor quality glass on right.

You can tell immediately they are fakes and don’t even need to look through the middle of the glass for the missing imprinted “The Glencairn Glass” at the base. The glass feels too light in the hand, is thin and dull looking. The base sits on the table ever so slightly lopsided with visible pits and lines, and the rim on top, thin and uneven. The overall shape is also not right with a too narrow bell and with the walls of the glass too straight.

Flicking the glass with your fingers emits a dull thud rather than a melodious ring that the genuine article makes. You can always tell the difference between quality glass and cheap glass by the ringtone it makes when lightly flicked.

Poor glazing finish with pits and lines

The real McCoy.

The fake on the right is the wrong shape

Before you start checking all your Glencairn glasses it is worth pointing out that there have been a number of versions of the genuine article. Clencairns which I purchased some 20 years ago use slightly thicker glass, are slightly heavier and the text embossed on the base is printed with the words closer together. I even have a Glencairn which I purchased at the Dalwhinnie distillery with the words "The Glencairn Glass" printed in reverse.

Moreover, the Glencairn Crystal Glass company also produce a deluxe version of their famous glass made from cut crystal glass which, because of the way its cut, has no printed text  on the base. Glencairn do other products as well such as the Glencairn Water jug, decanters, Copita tasting glasses with lids and even gentlemen's cufflinks which I wear on Shabbos.

https://www.glencairnwhiskyglass.com/

In my opinion, this is really tacky and would seem to run completely counter to the premium deluxe image of Bladnoch! However, when I mentioned this to the salesman, he claimed that these glasses had not been produced by the wine chain or by the Israeli importers, (as I had assumed), but in fact had been supplied by a representative of the distillery itself!

I have to admit that I found it very difficult to believe that the distillery, who I assume, sells genuine Glencairn glasses in its own visitor’s centre, would supply fake ones with their name on them to the Israeli distributer. However, in conversation with Addi, a director from the Israeli importer, he confirmed that in fact, the glasses came from the distillery representative!

*** UPDATE ***
After a quick investigation by distillery representative Will Pitchforth (see below for more details), it seems that the Israeli importers were confused. The glasses did not come from the distillery! In fact the Bladnoch fake Glencairn glasses  were produced by another distributer here in Israel for a large tasting evening and were not intented for resale. Will assured me that the distillery does indeed only sell genuine Glencairn glasses in its distillery shop. Baruch Hashem! 

I met Addi in Banna Mashkaot on a Thursday afternoon where we had a very friendly chat about various whisky topics such as why there was such an extreme price difference from store to store here in Israel, Kosher Certification and other kashrut issues and of course, what were our favourite whiskies. He seemed genuinely appreciative when I told him that they had made a mistake with the spelling of the distillery name in Hebrew and promised to correct this for the next run. He also informed me that they have exclusive rights to both Bladnoch and Tullibardine (as well as others) and were only sold at Banna Mashkaot. It was at that point when the penny dropped and I realised that in fact, the wine chain store and the importers were part of the same company.

Kosher Certification by the London Beth Din

Interestingly, the distillery has sought its own kashrut certification from the UK based Orthodox organisation KLDB for this 10-Year-Old expression which is great for the Israeli importer who does not need to invest money in a local Teudat Kashrut.

It is the only one from the current range which has Kosher certification due to the fact  that the others have Ex-Sherry maturation of various degrees.

Bladnoch 10-Year-Old Bourbon Expression, 46.7% abv. Price NIS 240

We start our review with good news already. When I checked online, I found to my pleasant surprise that the price I paid here in Israel was slightly lower than in the UK. How about that!?

It also clearly states on the box that this Bladnoch (as are all their expressions), Non-Chill Filtered. Although I could not find it on the label (where it really counts), the official Internet site states Natural Colour! Yet more good news!

https://bladnoch.com/portfolio/bladnoch-10-year-old/

Also, Googling around, it seems that all their standard bottlings are bottled at exactly 46.7% making that a brand signature of Bladnoch, similar to Brown Forman’s standardised 46.3% abv in all its three distillery bottlings. Hold on a minute! It may not be a coincidence that the very same distillery manager - Ian Macmillan, put in charge of creating the new craft brand profile for Bladnoch, was also the very same person who was responsible for the rebranding of Deanston, Tobermory and Bunnahabhain!?

At this point I wish to thank Will Pitchforth, Head of Commercial at Bladnoch distillery, for promptly answering all my questions via a series of emails and inviting me to visit the distillery as his guest, the next time I am in Scotland.

Maturation.
For this Kosher release Will informed me that the distillery used a combination of First and Second Fill Ex-Bourbon barrels from Heaven Hill, Wild Turkey and Jim Beam. Very Nice!

Colour and Look

Pouring the whisky into a Glencairn Copita glass it has a light glowing gold, straw colour, typical of natural colour Ex-Bourbon cask matured single malts.

Swirling the liquid around in to the glass I became aware of a strange quality, that despite being Non-Chill Filtered and bottled at high alcohol strength which preserves intact the full body of the malted barley grain, the whisky does not appear to be oily at all! In fact, I’d describe the liquid as quiet “runny”. Alcohol tears (or legs) fall down rather too quickly for my liking but do however leave clumps or clusters of whisky stuck to the sides of the glass.

Initial nosing without water.

I began a nosing and tasting session which lasted over an hour. Garden flowers, soft, approachable, elegant, slight spirit bite but it adds to the complexity and layers of aromas. It does have a high alcohol spirit sensation but it is certainly not prickly on the nose at all. Remarkable for a 46.7% abv. Caramel popcorn, Salty Popcorn, dominant Bourbon dry influence. Cocktail wood cabinets, vanilla cream in a wooden bowl, vanilla cream and Cake All Spices, Pickling spices. There is something fruity green about it. Let’s say green plums?

I added a drop of water and waited a few minutes.

Now the malt was really opening up. Soft creamy white Honey, Dunnage warehouse, sweet damp soft oak smell, young green chardonnay wine, vanilla cream fudge, maple syrup, milky fudge cream, Irish Cream Liquor.

I added a few more drops.

Malted pineapple vinegar, vanilla tea leaves, a combination of green menthol and caramel, a hint of new soft leather wallet smell, Sugar barley cereal like Sugar Puffs with milk. Kellogg’s All-Bran Malty cereal and a perhaps some glazed coconut. Soft Toffee-banana toffee sweets., gooseberries, green plums, rose petal and the fresh smell of walking through heather meadows. Honestly, this has the complexity of an 18-Year-Old Bourbon Cask, not a 10-Year old! It is gentle, mature yet exploding with flavour, commanding and bold.

 

Oaky but no sign of Nuttiness

The wonderfully complex nose of this 10-Year-Old (I have to keep reminding myself that it is only 10 Years old!), is an aroma dominated by a rich polished old oak. However, unusually for a whisky matured in American White Oak Ex-Bourbon barrels and despite expecting and indeed looking for it, I could not detect any nuttiness about this whisky at all. (Neither could I in the tasting).

I don’t quite know what to make of this and it leaves me rather puzzled. I cannot think of a single Single-malt whisky with a similar Ex-Bourbon profile, where there hasn’t been some kind of walnut, hazelnut, pecan or almond in the nose and taste. The only thing even close to a nutty taste is the slight hint of glazed coconut but, as I said, it’s only a hint.

Tasting

First off without water.

Despite the whisky being a little up tight and closed, it was still a positive and educational experience. We had flavours of honey, toffee and Polished wood, fudge, spearmint chewing gum and green plums. I was surprised to find it rather alcohol sharp on the palette, far more so than was indicated by nosing it.

Now, with Water added…

Heather honey, soft vanilla and cinnamon cream buns, hint of sweet melted chocolate chips, rich maple syrup, fluffy waffles, spicy green fruits and cinnamon cake grated lemon rind and with glazed coconut sprinkled on top, those green plums are back again, ripe gooseberries, spicy vanilla fudge blocks,

Finish

Spicy wood and heather honey, caramel fudge, green plums and pineapple chunk cake with slightly bitter/sour lemon rind on the medium finish.

 

Personal Conclusions

I have to admit that this Bladnoch could not have come at a better time for me personally. I have just come back from the Highlands of Scotland and been sampling loads of single malts from that region. I must confess, I was getting a bit fatigued with the standard Ex-Bourbon, heather honey, flowers, yellow fruit flavours like apples and melon, which almost all the Speysiders and Highlanders have in common.

Coming home and seeing this Bladnoch 10 here in Israel for such a good price and, with its KLBD Teudat kashrut and all, I could not resist purchasing it, even though I suspected it would be the ubiquitous heather honey, yellow fruits, la-di-dah-di-dah flavour profile yet again. This is especially true when it comes to other Lowland single malts I have tastes such as the Glenkinchie 12-Year-Old. It’s pleasant enough but frankly, rather bland. This is I am afraid, the reputation that Lowland single malts have, especially Diageo bottlings. Pleasant enough, non-offensive but lacking a bit of character and flavour.

Boy, was I in for a most delightful surprise when it came to sampling this Bladnoch! This golden liquid is nothing like any Ex-Bourbon non-peated whisky Highland or Lowland I have ever uncounted and I just love it! It’s something new, surprising and refreshing.

I would guess that the unique flavour profile has a lot to do with the stills and how they are handled which results is a completely difference style of new-make-spirit which I would guess is slightly more green fruits wine flavour rather than the more usual white fruits wine flavour. This shows through in the single malt even when matured in the standard Ex-Bourbon barrel. Whatever it is, keep doing it Bladnoch! I’m going out to get another bottle. There cannot be any greater endorsement than that, especially if, like me, you have become a little bit weary of the non-peated mainland single malt.