Bladnoch 18 Year Old - The Golden Cask Miniature

Founded in 1817, Bladnoch is a Lowland single malt distillery with a fragmented ownership and production history. Bladnoch was rebuilt in the 1950s and changed hands several times before ending up with United Distillers in the late 1980s. UD mothballed Bladnoch in 1993 and sold it the following year to Raymond Armstrong, who eventually won permission from Diageo to resume production in 2000. David Prior bought Bladnoch in 2015 after an internal dispute led to the liquidation of Armstrong’s business.

In the early 2000s Armstrong, who was only permitted to produce 100,000 litres of spirit a year, released several official Bladnochs from previous eras before bottling his own distillate, some of which was peated. Prior is under no such restrictions and the distillery now operates at its 1.5m litre capacity and releases single casks and a range of age statement whiskies. Independent Bladnoch appears regularly from Gordon & MacPhail, Wemyss and the SMWS, among others.

House of Macduff is an independent bottler of Scotch whiskies. The company is a subsidiary of Cumbrae Supply Co., and most of their releases are single malt and single grain whiskies under their Golden Cask brand. Cumbrae Supply Co. has been owned by the Macduff family since 1987 and has been bottling single malt whiskies since the 1990s. 

The Golden Cask series first appeared in 2002 and have released some terrific whiskies, including Bowmore, Highland Park, Macallan and a string of excellent Port Ellen casks. House of Macduff is also behind the rare Whisky Life series, a short run of casks selected by John McDougall around 2002, and proprietary brands including Burns Nectar single malt and the Selkie blended malt.