Bladnoch 14-year-old

Try it at the Whisky Spring Schwetzingen 2021. Very intense sherry aroma. Still soft and round. Looks older than 14 years. Very tasty. Class!

A beautiful and very mature-looking bottling. And funny: If I had tried it blindfolded and someone had told me it was a Couvreur whisky, I would have believed it. Pickled red fruit from a very, very humid cellar. Unfortunately, I find the musty mushroom note in the finish really creepy.

Oily, nutty and slightly bitter aftertaste

Brief impressions from a blind tasting. It's hard to describe, but I really like it.

whiskyfun.com: 87 points

Copper. Sufficiently strong nose with honey, cherry, marzipan, sweet tobacco and a striking amount of almonds / amaretto. The palette is sharper than the nose and remarkably watery on the palate in feel. The palette gives wood, cloves and sweet white fruit. The finish is drying with a bit of musty wood. At the back again a hint of almond. The nose is promising and unusual, the palette and aftertaste are much more standard sherry-spicy-oaky.

Some sulfur present But I like it

A beautiful lowlander matured in a barrel of Oloroso.

After an 11-year-old Bladnoch was not particularly convincing in the Lowland Tasting, here comes the 14-year-old Bladnoch matured in Oloroso casks. Bladnoch does not color or chill filter and the casks have given the whisky a very nice dark amber colour. www.glen-efze.de

Savage Dr Nick Savage has been working as a Master Distiller at Bladnoch since 2018. If that name doesn't ring a bell: Savage is a former Master Distiller at Macallan! But four years ago he made a so-called horizontal shift to this Lowlander, because he believed that he could put a completely new range on the map. And I must confess, since the acquisition by David Prior in 2015, Bladnoch had faded into the background for me. What I tasted didn't really appeal to me. Could Savage change this? Let's give it a try with this 14-year official release from 2021, which matured on oloroso sherry casks. The nose is rich and aromatic on grassy and floral notes, complemented by a cartload of caramel and apple cake. Apricots and peaches pop up, notes of dessert wine and some grape juice. Quite interesting, without being completely earth-shattering. The body is light, but not watery. Immediately I get notes of pastry again. Apricot pastry with a big pinch of cinnamon and cloves, supplemented with milk chocolate with praline filling, rum raisins and again that touch of dessert wine. This is not too bad. Midpalate a bitter touch as from walnuts appears. Well balanced, however. The finish is darkly sweet, gently seasoned and slightly drying. Well, this is already much better than I expected, but 100 EUR? I find that a bit pricey for this bottle.

This Bladnoch 14 Years offers more than the obligatory raisins and caramel. Especially the palate was very satisfying.

quite impressive on the nose, showing a lovely complexity, plenty of layers but without ever becoming overly busy. While the palate is still pretty decent, all in all I feel it’s a bit more closed and not as balanced. Definitely an interesting whisky, but one to try at a bar or at a festival, as you’re not, in my honest opinion, getting a 100 quid’s worth of whisky.

Good sherry whisky. Complex and tasty at the same time. The price, on the other hand, is a bit too high, €75 would be appropriate.

Another bottling of sherry, not sweet and fruity but much more on the chocolaty, spicy side. I like this, it doesn't always have to be a sweet sherry fruit bomb. The hint of sulfur in the taste might put some people off. The slightly alcoholic aftertaste, combined with the relatively short finish, makes the finish perform a little worse than the nose and taste. Apart from that, it is a very drinkable and quite interesting bottling. Certainly the best of the four I've had from Bladnoch so far. But for around €100, the 14y isn't worth the fun to me. There is still a 17 year old bottling in my sample archive. Maybe she can completely convince me about Bladnoch and the Lowlands.

This malt is already very sweet, but the aromatic counterpoints are there, making it a fine dessert dram.

Smell: strong alcoholic, spicy nose; Oak; hardly a trace of Oloroso; with water the whisky opens a little; slight malt note in the background, which is still covered by alcohol Taste: saliva sets in; full bodied; heavy aroma with citrus tip; no raisins; no maltiness or sweetness; no real fruit note Finish: medium length; at the end it becomes slightly bitter; stays on the palate for a long time Conclusion: For over 90 euros (2021) there is IMHO really better. I would recommend a sample before buying a bottle. If the limited edition of almost 1500 bottles has really been stored in Oloroso barrels for the entire time, I don't find the result convincing.

Excellent sherried scotch whisky. Real tasty!

Short notes from an online blind tasting session … Yummy

Well done, modern sherry barrel maturation (only I don't need the floral notes), but never worth a purchase for me at 100 euros.

Blad still 14 years old, Sherry Cask, 46.7% alc. Release 2021 Nose: Oh ... there we have it, really nice sherrymalt. Raisins, dried berries, oranges, leather and wood aromas. This is followed by wonderfully integrated spices. Cinnamon is underneath, a little liquorice removed. Harmonious and not intrusive. Palate: It continues its line. A lot of raisins, a hint of dates, a lot of leather and pleasantly mild wood aromas. More cinnamon than on the nose, with walnuts and delicate chocolate aromas. Finish: Rather long and initially very sweet, towards the end cinnamon and dry wood prevail again. Conclusion: I have definitely found my favorite in the current core range. A wonderful sherry painting with a clear line throughout, perfectly coordinated. Really harmonious and yet not boring. 89/100 points (2021). www.notesofmalt.com

Relatively few influences, I detected some tobacco tones

Having just tasted the Macallan single cut, I much prefer this one, however the price is almost up there with Macallans. Good sherried cask influence with raisins, butterscotch and almonds. A few drops of water bringsout the sweet caramels. Pleasant experience.

A well executed oloroso maturation, both the Bladnoch spirit and the oloroso are recognisable. The growing sulfurous notes are a downside.

Delicious part!

2022-02-10

I like the nose very much, a bit more restrained on the palate but very drinkable, the finish catches up again and rounds off the whisky enjoyment again - 08.10.2022

For a 14-year-old sherry cask, I find the price of over 100 € in Germany too high. For me it was a liquid Black Forest cake with too much alcohol, dark chocolate and a marzipan coating. this applies especially for the 2023 release! The Glen Garioch 15 in particular, but also the Glendronach 15 / Tamdhu 15 / Glenallachie 12 are real alternatives, especially in terms of value for money.

Woody, spicy and sweet.

No fault, no great

Dark bitter Chocolate Bomb ????, loads of Sherry, some Associations to cleaner Versions of Heavy Sherry Bunnas

A clearly sherry-heavy blade with a lot of complexity. Nice for an evening by the fireplace or a hearty dinner with game.

I took this whisky for nearly 3 months. I waited in suspense, I imagined it would be extra dram. Unfortunately, I am slightly disappointed. He feels too much alcohol in his nose, which is not really just a supplement, but dominates the whole thing. The taste, in my opinion, is a bit better, but it becomes too bitter, and the fruity that exudes beautifully in the first phase quickly disappears in favor of this bitterness. Maybe today is not my day to taste Bladnoch 14 YO, I will probably come back after some time and I will be able to taste it again and compare it with what I concluded and felt today.