Bladnoch completes Waterfall Series with fifth and final edition set to be unveiled at Waterfall Day 2024

Bladnoch, Scotland’s southernmost distillery, has released the fifth and final edition of the Master Distiller’s Waterfall Series into its portfolio of Lowland single malt Scotch whiskies.

Bladnoch Waterfall 05 2024 Edition will be unveiled at the distillery’s annual Waterfall Day festival event on 18 May 2024.

Curated by Bladnoch Master Distiller Dr Nick Savage, the innovative five-year series explores the world of whisky maturation and highlights the remarkable journey Bladnoch’s bold Galloway spirit takes to mature its unique flavours and character.

Released annually since 2020, each expression demonstrates the distillery’s taste-first approach to whisky making by showcasing the different ways the same aged Bladnoch single malt can be further matured to develop unique taste profiles, creating a waterfall effect.

At the start of the unique whisky making journey for The Waterfall Series, Nick carefully selected enough aged Bladnoch single malt from a combination of sweet ex-bourbon casks and intense Oloroso sherry casks maturing in the distillery’s 207-year-old bluestone warehouses to create the five-year series.

Waterfall 01 2020 Edition featured the whisky at the beginning of its maturation journey, revealing notes of lemon cake and dried apricot and a sweet freshness on the palate. For year two, the remaining whisky was placed into Oloroso sherry puncheons, resulting in new notes of treacle, dried apricots and dark chocolate for Waterfall 02 2021 Edition.

In year three, an exquisite port pipe maturation resulted in notes of dates, nutmeg and root ginger and a mouthfeel of dried apricots for Waterfall 03 2022 Edition. To create Waterfall 04 2023 Edition in year four, the whisky was further matured in Hungarian Tokaji dessert wine casks to add notes of grapes and jam upside-down cake.

The fifth and final single malt, Waterfall 05 2024 Edition has been finished in second-fill Oloroso sherry puncheons to round all the flavours created over time. The result is a whisky characterised by a sugary flavour profile with dates and nutmeg. It imparts aromas of Christmas dates with sugary dark treacle on the nose, sticky toffee pudding with rounded, floral nutmeg flavours on the palate and a rounded sweet mouth coating leading to subtle warmth for the finish.

Dr Nick Savage, Master Distiller at Bladnoch Distillery, said: “This is a milestone occasion for the distillery as we proudly complete The Waterfall Series.

“Crafting this series of exceptional whiskies has been a wonderful journey. At the beginning of the process in 2020, I selected single malt from a combination of sweet ex-bourbon casks and intense Oloroso sherry casks, to form the basis for the full set of five editions.

“The first release really showcased the whisky at the beginning of its maturation journey and at the end of each year, after bottling each batch, I assessed how the whisky matured to make my selection for the next cask type for a new layer of finishing where flavour and character would develop further for the next edition. This created a waterfall effect which inspired the collection’s name, and it’s a privilege to complete the series.”

Waterfall 05 2024 Edition is limited to only 1,000 individually numbered bottles and will be unveiled on 18 May 2024 at Bladnoch’s Waterfall Day, an annual festival event at the distillery where fans from around the world gather to celebrate, connect, savour and share their passion for the whisky.

Running from 12pm-7pm, the line-up includes live music performances and entertainment by musician Katie Mac and Ometeotl, cuisine from Caroline’s Catering and The Tin Van Eating Co, and exclusive tastings of Bladnoch single malt whiskies, including The Dragon Series, by Bladnoch’s UK and Australia brand ambassadors.

Non-chill filtered and natural in colour, Waterfall 05 2024 Edition will have an RRSP of £140 and is available exclusively from Bladnoch Distillery from 18 May 2024.

Waterfall Day 2024 is a free event open to all over 18s. A return bus service from Dumfries to Bladnoch Distillery is running, with a limited number of tickets available for purchase for £10 from Bladnoch Distillery. Tickets for The Dragon Series tasting priced at £50 can also be purchased separately.