Bladnoch 1987-2000 - 12 Year Old - Signatory Vintage - Casks 40023-24

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.

Signatory Vintage Whisky Company was founded by Andrew Symington in 1988 after a spell as assistant manager at the Prestonfield House Hotel, where he had the opportunity to buy a cask of Glenlivet 1968. A robust and canny businessman, Symington had soon acquired some outstanding parcels of casks from great distilleries, and quickly established a reputation among single malt fans for good value, high quality single casks, the majority of which were released at full strength.

Throughout the 1990s and beyond, Signatory released outstanding whisky from Ardbeg, Glenfarclas, Springbank and many more, with frequently remarkable examples of lost or obscure distilleries. Soon established as one of the leading new wave independent bottlers, Symington was also an early exponent of bottling whiskies without colouring or chill filtration, a policy that has also served Signatory well at their Edradour distillery, which was purchased in 2002.