Blair Athol 12 Year Old

Bought this bottle about a year ago, on what was supposed to be my last day in Scotland as an exchange student. My plane would leave late in the evening, so I got up early, got on a bus going to Pitlochry, for one last distillery visit. It had been raining all week (not that unusual) but the small streams in Pertshire clearly couldn't handle that much rain no longer and the burn at the distillery transformed into a wild stream. I didn't plan on buying another bottle, as my luggage was already getting too heavy, but I was sufficiently charmed by the 12yo flora and fauna that I returned with two bottles. On the way back I got stuck in traffic as the people of Edinburgh apparently were all trying to get out of the city and get to the airport, so eventually I missed my flight and had to book another one two days later. So even though I payed only 38£ per bottle, the added price of one hell of an expensive ticket back home (about 10 times the price of this 12yo) makes it my most expensive bottle.

Nose: Heavily sherried and nutty (it always amazes me how I always smell the sherry first, the nuts come afterwards), smoke, scents of peat

Taste: Fruity, again that distinctive sherry taste, spicy: black pepper, roasted chestnuts. It is actually quite hot for a 43%

Finish: Hot and warm afterglow, peat and orange peels. But leaves you with quite the dry mouth.

Conclusion: Well I must admit this has become one of my favorite drams, it might not be a very complex malt, but it certainly has its charms. Finding a bottle might prove to be difficult, although the distillery has an output of about 2500000l of pure alcohol/year, only 1% is bottled as a single malt. But if you come across this bottle, it's well worth picking it up.

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