Whisky et distilleries: Forum

Just a wee update to say hello to everyone on my favourite site.
Despite many resolutions, I still haven't managed to learn to speak anything other than "holiday French". The small town near Bladnoch distillery, Wigtown, is a Booktown and has close relations with Becherel in Brittany which I think was one of the first Booktowns, Citie du livres I think it's called. Consequently, all the local businesses here are hoping to develop better relations with Brittany. For me, living in Ireland I've gone down to Cork on my motorbike and crossed over to Roscoff to go touring. Next time I plan to visit Jean Donnay's small distillery near Pleubian, to improve on Celtic Connections.
We've been busy during the summer months and have had quite a few visitors from France. I think I've made them all very welcome at Bladnoch despite the fact that France hasn't been too kind to the Irish Rugby team. ..... C'est la vie
As you know this is a very small distillery. So far this year we have produced about 1100 casks, I think about 140,000 litres which with the increased price of barley, casks and oil represents a reasonable amount of money. but would be a pittance to most other normal sized distilleries. We have been filling mostly bourbon barrels from Kentucky but these are becoming quite difficult to get. We have also started warehousing casks for a much larger distillery and this brings us much needed income. Most of the industry is expanding in anticipation of sales continuing to grow, so many distilleries are building new warehouses or installing more stills.

Raymond http://www.bladnoch.co.uk
Good Luck next weekend to any rugby enthusiasts

And not very far from Bladnoch, Girvan is getting 8 new pot stills to make some malt whisky (quite a lot) for blending purposes.

The question is : in 5 years time, will the Atlantic Ocean be large enough to contain all the whisky which is promised to be distilled, or will you build dozens of acres of roofs to store whisky casks ?

Will the Chineese, Indian, and others from the BRIC launch a charity club to help the world to dry what is promised to be not only a lake, but a sea of whisky ? And will the Ocean be large enough for the whisky and the tears of the unlucky wounded producers ? Not you Raymond, I am talking about the "easy money triers", the stock exchange players...

A nice man wishes us from time to time : "sweet drams". On my side, I would like to make them even sweeter : cheap drams !

That is not another NATO word (No Action Talk Only), it looks to be likely to happen in two or five years time !

There's no doubt, in the whisky industry, it's either a feast or a famine but when the big companies start to "dump and discount" do we not get a cheaper dram?
In situations of heavy discounting by the big boys small companies are often damaged. All we can hope to do is be prudent, not overspend, try to produce a sought after product, and keep some money for a rainy day.

Raymond

You are probably right, Raymond. Unconsistancy on the market is the worse which can happen for small boys like you and us.

Bladnoch a écrit :try to produce a sought after product

By the way Raymond, I really like Bladnoch, but it seems that all your whiskies are between 10 and 15 YO and matured in bourbon casks. Do you have some sherry casks waiting (although sherry may dominate Bladnoch's lemony and grassy aromas...), and are you going to put older casks on the market in the coming years ?

bottler a écrit : The question is : in 5 years time, will the Atlantic Ocean be large enough to contain all the whisky which is promised to be distilled, or will you build dozens of acres of roofs to store whisky casks ?

Well, ever heard of biocarb???

Hi Serge, Laphroaig,
Bladnoch distillery was closed by United Distillers from 6/1993 until 12/2000 so most of our whisky stock was distilled before 1993 ie it's now at least 15 years old. We hope to start to bottle from the 2000 distillation some time next year to sell as an 8 yo. Most of the casks we now use are first fill bourbon, some refill hoggies and some 225 litre French wine casks. We have also filled some sherry hogsheads.
If you email me your postal address again I'll send you a sample of 15 yo from a sherry butt.
Luck
Raymond

Serge a écrit :

bottler a écrit : The question is : in 5 years time, will the Atlantic Ocean be large enough to contain all the whisky which is promised to be distilled, or will you build dozens of acres of roofs to store whisky casks ?

Well, ever heard of biocarb???

Surprisingly enough, Invergordon grain distillery was interesting CL Financial to be transformed to an ethanol manufacture... Of course, that was few monthes before the take over of White & Mackay, and before the whisky crisis.

Wasn't it a incredible time, two years ago ?

Bladnoch a écrit :Hi Serge, Laphroaig,
Bladnoch distillery was closed by United Distillers from 6/1993 until 12/2000 so most of our whisky stock was distilled before 1993 ie it's now at least 15 years old. We hope to start to bottle from the 2000 distillation some time next year to sell as an 8 yo. Most of the casks we now use are first fill bourbon, some refill hoggies and some 225 litre French wine casks. We have also filled some sherry hogsheads.
If you email me your postal address again I'll send you a sample of 15 yo from a sherry butt.
Luck
Raymond

Hi Raymond,
It is dangerous to make such proposal on this forum. Everyone would be willing to have some samples from Bladnoch

BR
Corbuso