Overview
This little 20ml bottle was a Christmas present from my younger brother-in-law, who, apropos of nothing, lives in Yorkshire.
Actually, I’m just being facetious, it was a great present and better than a bog standard bottle of whisky from a supermarket, and most whisky lovers would sooner have “small and rare” instead of “large and ubiquitous”.
Based in Pitlochry, Perthshire, Blair Athol is technically a Highland distillery, but is one of the southernmost and is much further south than Speyside. It has a good reputation and it’s 12-year-old is very highly regarded.
At first impressions, it’s very pale for an 11-year-old, and after some investigation, it appears to have been in a refill barrel. Compared to their 12-year-old this very pale and lemony coloured, like the wee of a well-hydrated person, mid-afternoon. The 12-year-old is more like David Dickinson after a fortnight in Magaluf.
The other negative is sulphur. I’m really hyper-alert to sulphur and I get quite strong notes of it in this. Some people don’t mind it, but I’m with whisky writer Jim Murray who spent the first dozen pages of the 2013 edition of his “Whisky Bible” bemoaning it.
| Colour | Nose | Palate | Finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pale, thin weak yellow. | Light fruit salad, banana… but in amongst it all is that bloody sulphur! | Clean but fiery, pear drops and faint hint of spice. | Still weirdly fiery for it’s age, apple, grass |
Conclusion
There is an element of this being the opposite to me raving about peaty whiskies elsewhere. I like “peat” and I hate “sulphur” so take all my comments with that in mind. However, this seems to have been distilled in an overused cask, which hasn’t had much flavour left to impart to this batch of spirit, hence the pale, weak nose and flavours. I don’t think this does the distillery justice.
54%
Rating
