Balblair 1990-2010 - 20 Year Old - Bladnoch Forum - Single Cask 166

Located in the Northern Highlands a few miles from Glenmorangie, Balblair’s whisky is old-school coastal Highland style. The original Balblair distillery was founded in 1790 but production was moved in 1872 to a new distillery which was subsequently rebuilt in 1894 and then mothballed from 1911-1949. Balblair was acquired by Hiram Walker in 1970, became part of Allied Distillers in 1988 and was finally sold to Inver House Distillers in 1996. Inver House have been owned by Thai Beverages plc since 2006.

Sporadic official bottlings of Balblair occurred prior to the Inver House takeover, and Gordon & MacPhail also bottled Balblair semi-officially under licence for many years. Inver House issued a memorable 33-year-old Balblair in 2000 before launching a popular vintage range in 2007. The core range reverted to age statement releases in 2019. Most of the classic indie Balblairs are from Gordon & MacPhail, with notable releases also from bottlers including the SMWS, Adelphi and Douglas Laing.

The Bladnoch Forum was an online discussion group set up in 2001 by former distillery owner Raymond Armstrong for friends and fans of the Bladnoch distillery. Under the terms of his agreement with Diageo to recommence distillation Armstrong was allowed to produce only 100,000 litres of Bladnoch spirit per annum; with the Forum gaining traction among whisky fans, in 2005 Armstrong decided to start bottling and selling whiskies to his loyal members.

Over 100 single cask whiskies were released by Bladnoch Forum between 2005-2012, many of which were of outstanding quality. In the early 2000s Armstrong was quoted as saying that no whisky was worth more than £50, and the Bladnoch Forum bottlings were exceptional value for drinkers. The superb long-aged Invergordon grains and the fantastic 1980s vintages of Caol Ila and Port Ellen are still highly sought after at auction.