Bladnoch Vinaya
Official Bottling| 46.7% ABV
Please, For The Love Of All That’s Good, Don’t Make It Cheesy
As an inexperienced whisky drinker, I listen to the sage, battle-won advice of the elders. It’s just how it’s done in whiskyland. I look on in awe at the wizened custodians of the good word of whisky, and wonder just what they’ve seen in their time here on this shoogly planet.
Oh, to have the weathered palates of folk like Ralfy or Roy - imagine what incredible whisky has passed, via the steampunker and microphone woes, of those veteran lips. I try not to think of it too often for fear of irreversible envy, but I sometimes imagine what they both have lurking in their stash(es). Whilst going through Ralfy’s back catalogue of videos, I found one where he brought out a Rare Malts bottling of St. Magdalene 19 Year Old. He’d had it (and two more of the same) since 2003, when the Rare Malt Selection bottlings weren't really all that interesting, and as such weren’t really all that expensive. One of those bottles now commands c£3,000. He gave it 97/100, his highest ever review. It’s safe to say that Ralfy knows a thing or two about whisky.
So, it was without a flinch that, upon watching one of Ralfy’s videos reviewing the Bladnoch 11 year old core release, right around the point I was getting into whisky, I went online and bought 2 bottles immediately. Such was his glowing endorsement of it, and the comparison to the unobtainable Daftmill, that I just needed to try it. I had, the previous weekend, tried a nip of Daftmill at the Bow Bar in Edinburgh, and thought it rather nice - chocolatey and delicious. What smell and taste experience awaits with the Bladnoch, then! The 11 year old expression also featured on Ralfy’s shortlist for Whisky of the Year until the Arran 10 year old made its way onto his radar, and took the prize for 2021. In his review of the Bladnoch (which I am now watching again to reacquaint myself with what made it so worthy that I had to buy two of them), he speaks favourably of the lightly floral, fruity nose, with notes of the savoury apparent, but almost unnoticeable. Honey, spice and all things nice, he ends the review with an 86/100 malt mark and clarifies that it needs time and space to really show its true magic. Well, I had loads of both those things - time and space - so when it arrived I did open it and I did give it space.
What I found was a whisky of such prominent savoury cheese pasta that I could barely make it past the nose. Frowning levels of weirdness. I stuck the giant, robust wood stopper back on the bottle post haste and shoved it back on the shelf for a few weeks, to give it Ralfy time. Trying it again, I found more of the same. There were a lot of other notes happening the following time I tried it and, looking at my little notepad that I kept before I moved to the digital notepad, I see I noted “hairspray, savoury cheesy - a buttery mess, maybe shortbread” on the nose. Big almond flakes, a bag of porridge and macaroni cheese to boot. On the palate I found hairspray, again. Grassy floral notes, like a city park that’s just been tended to. Hot chocolate. The “general remarks” section is filled, and reads:
Well work did get done, for over the following few months I would dip back into that bottle of Bladnoch 11 and find the intensity of those cheese notes increasing. The whisky was opening up, but revealing more of the stuff that put me off completely. I couldn’t get my head around why this would be the case. I didn’t find any of the luxurious nose notes I read about in online reviews of lemon blossom and honeysuckle. There were no toffee apples or peppery oak staves anywhere. Just cheese. Oodles of stale pasta with congealed cheddar on top.
I put this dismay onto instagram, whereby Bladnoch subsequently got in touch. They too couldn’t understand why I was finding this cheesiness in their whisky. So much so that they sent me out a small sample of the Bladnoch 11 from their own stash, to compare and contrast. I found the same notes in that sample too. It seemed that Bladnoch, for me, was just a simple no-go. At various points in our discussion Bladnoch had mentioned I could return both bottles for a replacement 11 year old but now, knowing that I didn’t resonate with the 11 on any facet, they suggested that I return the second, unopened bottle for replacement with a different expression. A surprising gesture given I hadn’t originally bought the bottle from them directly. So that’s what I did: in exchange for the unopened Bladnoch 11, I received in return a bottle of Bladnoch Vinaya and a miniature of Pure Scot Blended whisky. Probably not a like-for-like monetary exchange, but to be honest the prospect of anyone taking the second cheesy bottle off my hands without fuss was enough for me. I’d have taken a week old kipper.
The Vinaya that arrived was filed away in my garage for contemplation, and a wee while ago when I was sifting through the few boxes of whisky still to be moved into the whiskyzone, I uncovered the wee black box. Counter to Ralfy, I’m drawn to the presentation of Bladnoch. It has a bold presence and the square bottle makes for some lovely amber refractions. Looking at the overall packaging of the square glass stumpy bottle with exaggerated stopper, black matte backgrounds and silver foiling, it brings to mind early to mid-Century Germanic feels in its aesthetic. The jumble of different font types and that large Blackletter “B” stamped large - I can’t say I dislike it and it’s definitely unique. But I wasn’t ready to open it, for fear of it being another cheese monster; the potential realisation that my bottle exchange with Bladnoch turned out to be an exercise in swapping a turd in a bag for a turd in a less expensive bag was too much to bear. However, with a couple of blind sample contributions lately for Dramface, and my curiosity for new things (not to mention the need to tame the rapid depletion of the latest Ardnamurchan Cask Strength release) I decided tonight was the night to open it. So hold on to your cheese hats, because I’m going in.
Did someone say cheese?
Review
Sherry & Bourbon Cask Matured, 46.7% ABV
£45 widely available
The bulbous stopper comes off in a near-silent flunk. I take some photos and then attempt to pour the dram into my Glencairn, but it comes shooting out and spills everywhere. Usually the neck pour is a reluctant one, but not here: it’s energetic. My glass is really cold because… energy crisis and heating the place is becoming secondary to buying whisky. The Vinaya was still in the garage before I opened it, so it too is cold and the whisky is reacting as such - very tight and closed. Whilst I await the warming up of both glass and whisky, I look at some reviews around the interweb and see that they all feature the same proclamation of Bladnoch signature - a surprising lightness, and chocolatey-ness to it. I’m wary; I’ve been down this path before and although I’m a bit further along the whisky path than before, I still don’t fancy being lured into the cheese net. Tensions are running high now and I start to plan how I will offload this entire bottle, and the remnants of the Bladnoch 11 still lurking in the back of the cabinet somewhere, onto the Dramface team. Maybe I could just send everyone multiple blind samples, but all of them are the same whisky, and see if they notice?
Nose
The whisky is still cold, but getting a bit of fresh washing line - this is promising! Green apple boiled sweeties. Coffee beans and toffee. Dry rice. A cider whiff. Bread and butter pudding. Once it’s opened up and warmed it provides some really alluring sweet toffee smells, alongside a brighter, fresher note - it feels coastal but without the salt, if that makes sense. Standing on a cliff-top but the cliff is in the middle of a wild-flower field.
Palate
Nice entrance; a little kick of warming spice and some fresh apple notes make it through. I am so relieved there’s no cheese in sight that my shoulders retreat back down from ear to mid-neck. A sweet floral aftershave, which is really pleasant. Chocolatey coconut, like a lighter version of a Bounty, and so very quaffable. It reminds me of the Aultmore 12 a wee bit, with chocolate toffee aboard a very fresh apple vibe. It’s a really delicious dram; the toffee apple, green fruit notes are beginning to dominate as the dram sits longer and there’s a very small minty thread running in the background somewhere, adding to that freshness. Finish is decently long and lingering. A coca-cola sweetness fading on the tongue alongside a faint reminiscence of the smell of chocolate lypsyl.
The Dregs
I can’t tell you how happy I am to not find any cheesy notes in, what is my second experience of, Bladnoch whisky. I was apprehensive that the cheese thing was just the Bladnoch spirit’s character and I’d never be a Bladnoch guy. The “lowland signature” that I looked for in the 11 year old expression turned out to be that of horror, for me at least. Yet here I find a non-age stated whisky with that unique signature that I read about - floral lightness with chocolatey threads running through - in abundance. I’m drawn to it quite dramatically. This must be the lowland flavour signature that I’ve been seeking, and I’m really enjoying my time with the Bladnoch Vinaya; it resonates with my palate.
Yes it’s still a bit spenny for a NAS whisky, but I tell you what: if it was the choice between this Vinaya and the Bladnoch 11, I’d take this every single day of the week. The Glen Scotia Victoriana, which is £70, or the Aberlour A’bunadh, at nearly £80 are (cask strength) NAS whiskies that are exceptions to the age-stated check-box - smell and taste rule the roost for those drams and we don’t complain (that much). When pitted against those, the Vinaya at half the price is quite an intriguing prospect, despite the lower ABV. Compared to more price and ABV similar whiskies, like the Lindores MCDXCIV or even the NAS Ardnamurchan releases, it does fit squarely inside the fairly priced whisky bracket for me.
As such, under the scoring that Dramface sets out and, given the really solid smell and taste experience, it warrants a higher than average score of 6/10. I will likely replace this when it’s gone, and gone it will be…unlike the Bladnoch 11, which lingers in my cupboard like a perspiring uncle at a birthday party.
Score: 6/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. DC