Bladnoch 
Bladnoch is the southernmost distillery in Scotland and located next to the River Bladnoch and close to Wigtown. Bladnoch was established in 1816 when a farmer came into some money and decided to start distilling. The distillery's history is amply covered on its website.
The distillery has one mash tun where 6 tons of malted barley are mixed with various batches of hot water to extract the sugars. The first water is 22500ℓ at 66°C, followed by 10400ℓ at 77°C and a final water at 16000ℓ at 90°C. The wort is cooled to 18°C before being put into one of the six Oregon pine washbacks where 100kg of yeast is added and left to ferment for between 72 and 92 hours. There are two wash stills and two spirit stills.
Once the fermentation is complete, the wort is now wash and contains about 10% alcohol. This is put into the wash still where it is heated and the alcohol distilled to produce ablout 5000ℓ of low wines. The low wines, and the foreshots and feints from the previous spirit distillation, are now distilled in the spirit still to produce new make spirit of 69%. This is diluted to 63% before being put into casks for maturation. Ex-Bourbon casks, typically from Heaven Hills, Jim Beam and Jack Daniels, are used for maturation; 95% of casks are first-fill. There are some 4000 casks on site.
The stills are heated using steam that's generated using an LPG boiler.
With high energy costs, regardless of source, many distilleries look to heat recovery between different
processes: Bladnoch leaves the pot ale (about ⅔ of the initial charge)
and spent lees (about ⅓ of the initial charge) in its stills to keep them warm and only empties them just prior to the
next batch being filled.
Innis hosted the visit and gave an excellent introduction to the distillery, its history, operation and current products. Four tastings were available with a small sample of the 13-year and 16-year olds:
- New make spirit - not something you would drink neat but sold in the shop
- Pure Scot - 40% ABV, about 60% Bladnoch with two other malt whiskies and a small amount of grain whisky
- Vinaya - a 46.7% NAS whisky with flavours of chocolate and treacle
- Samsara - a 46.7% NAS whisky with flavours of chocolate and treacle
- 13-year old - 46.7% aged exclusively in ex-Bourbon casks
- 16-year old - 46.7% aged exclusively in Oloroso Sherry casks
Purchases
