EASTER AT BLADNOCH
Compiled by Sue
Two weeks ago Kevin, Mabel and myself loaded the car to the roof, filled the top-box and set off for Bladnoch.
It was a beautiful sunny day in Ulverston and we enjoyed the very scenic drive North through the lakes and into Scotland. We were looking forward to spending a fortnight in the mild climate of Galloway – doing a bit of sight-seeing and fishing while the sun shone gently down on us! I thought I’d pop into the distillery now and again – just to catch up on the gossip and lend a hand if needed.
Our holiday accommodation at Bladnoch is Raymond’s caravan – situated behind the old maltings with wonderful views of the distillery and the River Bladnoch. It’s very well appointed and has served us well since we left for Southern climes!! Though I did turn rather green with envy when stillman Hugh gave us a guided tour of his new 5 star luxury caravan parked next to ours…… However, once we had unloaded the car, got the heating on and the fridge stocked it was home from home. Mabel settled in her bed in the corner of the caravan and we settled down with a cold beer to watch the River Bladnoch flowing fast and deep past the distillery gardens. It was quite a sad sight – the prolonged bad weather had taken its toll on Raymond’s carefully tended gardens. The range of spectacular palm trees had not fared at all well, and were shedding leaves throughout the grounds. However , we tackled the garden on Saturday afternoon while Raymond and Florence were “Spring Cleaning” in the Distillery.
We very soon realised that dreams of “semi-tropical” weather were just that…. it rained, and rained, and rained, then just when we thought the sun was going to shine – it rained again, driven by gale force winds!! So the fishing was reduced to one unsuccessful afternoon and I popped into the distillery every morning at nine and popped out again at five – or six!!
The crew are Bladnoch were working at full stretch – the afternoon we arrived Hugh & John were unloading casks from a lorry that arrived a day late. The day before, the driver had ignored the “low bridge” signs on the A75 at Dunragit and wedged his vehicle under it and lost part of the load….. Chaos and road closures ensued when a replacement lorry was brought in – along with fork-lifts, and the load of palletised casks was transferred then kept in secure storage overnight in Stranraer. When they finally arrived at Bladnoch it was clear that a number of the casks had had a lucky escape being rather battered and muddy from their off-road experience!!
One memorable day was the one where we lost power at 3:30 in the morning…………I’ll let Raymond express his thoughts on that one………..
Despite the adverse weather forecast Florence and I went up to Glasgow yesterday morning in very squally conditions to pick up the Benriach. There was slushy snow in the Galloway Hills. We hadn’t had a great nights sleep. The electricity had gone off about 3.30 am and came back on again but this had set off the distillery alarms which required me to go walk about over to the shop in my pyjamas in the middle of a cold night to stop the alarms and re-set the system. They went off again just after 4 am and unfortunately this time the electricity remained off. It’s amazing how everything seems to be dependent on electricity.
While we were up in Glasgow a tanker lorry arrived down from Arran but without electricity John and Hugh were unable to pump the new-make spirit into the spirit tank. The unfortunate driver had been delayed on Arran on Monday during a power cut and couldn’t get off the island on Tuesday because of high seas and was fairly disconsolate when I arrived back from Glasgow. The unfortunate thing was that in times like this the electricity authorities usually decide not to be available on the phone for information purposes, so you are left wondering if and when the supply will be re-connected soon. I decided we’d better hire a 3 phase generator but this was easier said than done as the emergency covered nearly all of Dumfries and Galloway and hospitals, schools and other businesses had snapped up everything. Eventually after a forty mile round trip I managed to hire one which unfortunately turned out not to powerful enough to drive the very large pump on the back of the lorry. So we ended up disconnecting the distillery worts pump and after some make shift plumbing and with the use of the generator we managed to get the tanker emptied of 27000 litres of Arran new-make and the driver headed for home. An hour later the electricity came on.
Of course this had to happen on one of the coldest March days in Bladnoch!The rest of us did what we could throughout the day – the boys working in the warehouses where they could in the very dim light. As you know – we do all our labelling by hand so that carried on in the gloom of the old tearoom and also used the time to catch up on the packaging of forum orders. The hot soup from the Brig-End at lunchtime was very welcome….. Even so the visitors continued to arrive at the Visitor Centre – tours were not practical and the till and card machine weren’t operating so cash sales and promises of tours later in the week were the order of the day.
As I mentioned earlier we have been very busy with our Forum Bottles. Raymond sourced a number of casks that were bottled just before Easter and offered to Forum Members. They are all now available in our Webshop and in the Distillery Shop. We would normally only have one Forum Bottling at any one time – this time we had Caol Ila, Glenburgie, Benriach, Glen Elgin, Linkwood, Longmorn and Cambus!!!
The Easter Weekend was very busy – in spite of the atrocious weather. There’s nothing like Galloway rain for sending visitors running for cover in the distillery from the deluge…. People travelled to Bladnoch from Germany, Sweden, Canada, Ukraine, the USA, Netherlands and Newton Stewart. Raymond delighted folk with his “extended” tours and even Kevin was called in to take a group of Belgian visitors around who required a French speaking guide. As always we like to hope they all left Bladnoch with great memories – and a bottle of Bladnoch – as so many of you have done in the past….
To our many friends all over the world we would like to say “Thank You” for your continued support of The Spirit of the Lowlands
Slainte!
Sue
BLADNOCH DISTILLERY
BLADNOCH
WIGTOWN
DG8 9AB
01988 402605
www.bladnoch.co.uk
bladnoch@talktalk.net
What a fantastic newsletter! Well done! WI
