Bladnoch Distillery has announced the launch of the third release in its limited-edition Loch Maberry: Stories of Bladnoch series, which celebrates individuals who have a deep affinity with Scotland’s oldest privately owned distillery and invites them to select a whisky that reflects their story.

Bladnoch Loch Maberry: Stories of Bladnoch – Chapter Three (58.9% ABV) is a cask strength single malt Scotch whisky, distilled in November 2017 and matured in an ex-Cognac hogshead.

While Chapter One celebrated a lifelong admirer of the distillery and Chapter Two traced a family’s return to its roots, Chapter Three tells a love story – one that began with a chance meeting, with Bladnoch a thread running throughout.

Roddie Burgess had spent the day at Bladnoch for Waterfall Day, a festival at the distillery, with his friend Iain. That evening, the two returned to a hotel in Newton Stewart, where the only other person in the restaurant was Elaine. She had come to Galloway to take some time for herself, a few months after the death of her husband. As they talked, she discovered that Roddie had lost his wife 18 months earlier.

That might have been the end of the story. Some months later, however, Iain ran into Elaine again – this time in Northumberland – and passed on Roddie’s number. That chance encounter led to a long-distance relationship and, eventually, marriage.

The minister who married them had travelled from Tennessee and was keen to incorporate Scottish traditions into the ceremony. When a quaich was suggested, his response settled the matter: “Well, it has to be filled with Bladnoch!” He went on to tell the congregation that their marriage could be likened to the finest Bladnoch whisky – only getting better with age.

Invited to the distillery to choose the whisky that would tell their story, Roddie and Elaine tasted a range of cask samples with Master Distiller Dr Nick Savage before settling on an eight-year-old spirit matured in an ex-Cognac hogshead. They chose it for its warmth, which they felt reflected their story.

Bladnoch Loch Maberry: Stories of Bladnoch – Chapter Three, is said to deliver notes of apricot jam and muscovado sugar on the nose, followed by notes of orange marmalade, apricots and spices on the palate.

Commenting on the launch, Roddie and Elaine Burgess, said: “We met by chance at the end of a day that had started at Bladnoch – and the distillery has been part of us ever since. Neither of us expected to be starting again, and Bladnoch became the thing that was just ours: somewhere to go back to, and something to share that belonged to the two of us.”

“Choosing the cask brought all of that together. Sitting with Nick, tasting through the samples, finding the one that felt like us and then writing our own notes to sit alongside his – it is a strange and rather lovely thing to see your story on a bottle.”

Dr Nick Savage, added: “Roddie and Elaine’s is the most personal story we have told through Loch Maberry. It is about chance, about starting again, and about a place quietly becoming a constant for two people – which is not so far from what we are doing when we fill a cask and wait.

“The Cognac hogshead they chose has real warmth to it: apricot, marmalade, a sweetness that stays with you. Their minister had it about right – some things only get better with age.”

Limited to 458 bottles, Bladnoch Loch Maberry: Stories of Bladnoch – Chapter Three, is now available exclusively from the Bladnoch website and distillery shop, for a RRP of £108.00.