Historic Distilleries: Ladyburn

Ladyburn was another lowland distillery situated within a grain distillery, such as Glen Flagler, Inverleven and a couple of others. These stills, within Girvan Distillery that used to produce Ladyburn was only active for 12 years, from 1963-1975. Their main purpose was to distill single malts to be used in Grants blends. William Grant & Sons Co. owned and Girvan Distillery. There was never released any young Ladyburn, so what its reputation is based on are a few scarce OB's and indies from the 2000's and forth. The reception of these bottlings was however far from great, and the expensive prices comes foremost from a reputation of being a very rare malt, which probably is true. Some difficulties on the ownership of the name Ladyburn led to many IB's naming their Ladyburn bottlings "Rare Ayrshire", or just "Ayrshire". The Ailsa Bay Distillery which should be up and running in a couple of years are also located within Girvan Distillery, so perhaps a copycat that can make shame on those that put the distillery down so many years ago. Although I would like to think the distilling methods varies a bit from 1975 to 2013. Lets enjoy two rare whiskies from this distillery.



Rare Ayrshire 35yo 1975-2010 45.5% Signatory Vintage cask#553

The last year of Ladyburn production within Girvan. It should be pretty solid stuff after 34 years on oak. The color is amber golden. It smells honeyed, floral, peaches, dried fruits, figs, dates, nutty, coffee, barley cream, vanilla, floral. This is a surprise, a well-rounded, creamy, rich lowlander. The taste is drying, white wine vinegar, strong licorice, honey, porter, oily. Not nearly as refined as the nose suggested, time for some water. With added water it turns richer, caramel, burnt, oaky, sulphur. Looks like the oak got the best of this in the end. The finish is sugary, menthol eucalyptus, fresh.

A good whisky, but I believe the age have had a tiring effect: 4.5


Rare Ayrshire 34yo 1975-2009 46.9% Signatory Vintage cask#562 btl.78/172

This seems to have been a rather small cask to hold a whisky for such a period, lets hope its not over-oaked. I think this is a sample of one I bought right after they started showing up on the market, Ladyburns from SV. Today they are much more expensive, and as it seems, over-priced, but that may not be true for this one. The color is amber. It smells grassy, nutty, caramel, oranges, buttery, perfumy, heather. Another one that surprises me positively on the nose. The taste is peppery, grassy, licorice, mint, feints, herbal. This is weird as theres once again little or no coherence between what I find on the nose and on the palate. The finish is peppery, rubbery, spirity.

35yo, it seems much younger than that: 4


Unfortunately there's no photo's here, but a few photos of Girvan Distillery is out there. Go fetch!



Next Tasting: Glenlochy Distillery