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Blair Athol 23 Year Old Diageo Special Limited Releases 1993 Single Sherry Butt Cask Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky (2017) 70cl
1 of 5514 bottles produced worldwide (most were not in the UK(
The first official release since 2003 and the distillery's first appearance in Diageo's annual Special Releases.
This limited-edition 23-year-old whisky has been aged in ex-sherry European oak casks, resulting in a rich, full-bodied dram in quintessential Blair Athol style. A great choice for fans of sherry-aged whisky and the first time the distillery has been included in Diageo’s Special Releases. Matured in European oak butts that have been scraped, toasted, recharred and refilled with fortified wine in the UK before being filled with whisky.
A rich, fruity malt from very fine ex-bodega casks, this makes a real winter warmer, with plenty of lively fruit and spice to cut through its thick, sweet nature and reveal its true complexity
Whisky Magazine Recommended 8.8/10
TASTING NOTES
Nose: Lovely. Figs, damsons and raisins with strawberry jam. Morello cherrieswith burnt toffee and maple syrup.Pine needles and black tea.
Palate: Zippy as hell, with a thin, potent texture that almost injects the flavours-strawberry jam and cherryade with citrus, prunes and again the maple syrup.Assam tea and peppermint towards the end.
Finish: Long and spicy with a peppermint zing, burnt toffee and salted caramel.
A Bracing dram-one's mouth puckers.
About Blair Athol...
A member of the ‘nutty-spicy’ camp which defined the old Bell’s distilleries, Blair Athol takes the first part of the descriptor to its boldest expression.
Cloudy worts and a short fermentation time give the nutty base, but it is distillation which adds real weight to the distillate. A controlled level of solids coming across in the wash still add a rich, deep, malt-loaf character to the new make. It is this character which allows it to show so well in ex-Sherry, although for blending purposes the majority of the make is destined for ex-Bourbon.
The central Perthshire town of Pitlochry sits on the banks of the River Tay and has had a distillery since 1798, making its plant one of the oldest legal whisky-making sites in Scotland. The original distillery was named Aldour after the burn which supplied it with process water, but changed its name to Blair Athol [after a village seven miles to the north] in 1825. This could conceivably have been to sweeten the Duke of Athol who owned the land
It became part of the Peter Mackenzie blending house in 1886, but like many distilleries suffered during the economic troubles of the 1930s and fell silent between 1932 and 1949. In the interim period however Mackenzie (and its estate, which also included Dufftown distillery) had been bought by Perth-based blender, Arthur Bell & Sons.
By the 1970s, Bell’s was being built into the UK’s top-selling blended Scotch and, as a result, Blair Athol was doubled in capacity. Guinness (which bought Bell’s in 1985, and after further mergers evolved into Diageo) opened a visitor’s centre in 1987.
In an attempt to tap into the then infant single malt market, Bell’s bottled it as an eight-year-old in the 1980s, but in the Diageo era it has only appeared as a member of the Flora & Fauna range (at 12 years of age), matured in first-fill ex-Sherry casks.
58.4% ABV
70cl
| Specification name | Specification Value |
|---|---|
| Country | Scotland |
| Region | Highlands |
| Whiskey style | Single malt |
| Whiskey variety | Scotch |
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