Side by side : An indie Blair Athol single cask flight

An unassuming little distillery in an unassuming little town north of Perth as you enter the Highlands is the home of Bells - one of the biggest selling blends in the world.

You don't see many distillery bottlings but there are quite a few indies - here I'll try 3 single casks.

Blair Athol was build as a farm distillery in 1798 in the town of Pitlochry in the Highlands by Robert Robertson and John Stewart. It was originally called Aldour, after the Alt Dour burn nearby (Gaelic for Burn of the Otter) but later changed to Blair Athol, the name of a small village just to the north of Pitlochry.

It passed through different owner's hands until 1932 when it closed. The blenders Arthur Bell & Sons bought the distillery in 1933, rebuild and modernised it but production didn't restart until 1949.

A visitors centre was opened in 1987 as The Home of Bells. Diageo owned Bells is made up of whiskies from Blair Athol and varying levels of Caol Ila, Inchgower, Dufftown and Glenkinchie.

A stainless steel semi lauter mash tun is used to make the unpeated wash. Four wooden and two steel washbacks ferment the wash for fairly short 50 hours. Two Wash stills and two Spirit stills using shell and tube condenser distil a new make to around 67% ABV.

Photo: Amanda Reid

So which Independent Bottlers are we trying today?

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society was founded in 1983 when a group of friends clubbed together to buy a cask of fine malt whisky. They now sell their bottles to their thousands of members.	A proud independent bottler founded in 2019 sourcing malt whisky from some of the finest, most iconic distilleries in the world.	Edition Spirits is an independent whisky bottling business owned by Andrew and Scott Laing, the sons of Hunter Laing director and former Douglas Laing founder Stewart Laing. Released at Cask Strength under the First Editions series.

Let's see what the whisky is like:

Dram	2008 11yo 68.47 Riveting raspberry ruffle truffles [SMWS]	2009 11yo Single Cask #301012 [The Sipping Shed]	1995 23yo Single Cask #15758 [Edition Spirits]
Characteristics	55.4% ABV 1st Fill Ex-Oloroso Sherry Hogshead Finish 293 bottles	59.1% ABV Refill Sherry Hogshead 114 bottles	55.7% ABV Sherry Butt 289 bottles
Bottler info	A lovely deep fruity aroma like that of a raspberry pudding topped with roasted pecans, hazelnuts and warm vanilla sauce. The taste was delicious creamy – a chocolate mouse or a rose, raspberry and coconut fool of crystallized rose petals, double cream and toasted coconut flakes. Diluted we made a blackcurrant crumble spicing it up with Aleppo pepper and a shot of a digestive bitter made from a variety of aromatic herbs and matured in Slovenian oak barrels. On the palate now dark chocolate truffles, marzipan and a finish of sweet dried figs. After nine years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, we transferred this whisky into a 1st fill Oloroso hogshead.	A feast of dried fruits and spices with perfect weight and balance on the palate. It’s rich and satisfying in the mouth with a classic sherried style, yet there’s plenty of room for the distillery style to shine through before the lingering finish invites you back to the glass. Complex yet approachable with superb depth of flavour, this is a wonderful example of harmony between cask and spirit.	A nose of strawberries, marzipan and caramel. The palate is spicy with green ferns, toffee and cinnamon. The finish is long, with a lingering peppery note.
My thoughts:
Appearance
	Dark gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, form small beads which fall as slow thin legs.	Dark gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, take an age to form small beads which fall as slow thin legs.	Dark gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, form small beads which fall as slow thin legs.
Nose	Sherry bomb - strawberry jam , blackberries, raspberries, balsamic vinegar, A little almond and grape skin. The ABV tickles your nose hairs! A little time and air opens up vanilla custard and milk chocolate.	A little more subdued than the SMWS refill v 1st fill sherry cask but the sherry bomb notes are still there - berries and balsamic. The nut and grape skin notes are here too but again a little more subdued.	Struck match (sulphur) notes mask the sherry this time but there are some berry notes to be found.
Palate	ABV hits first, then the peppery spice and finally the berry fruit notes. Barley sugars and almonds offer sweet but dry notes as the liquid disappears. There's some toffee, dried fruit and a strange sour citrus off-note. Not good.	A higher ABV but much gentler on the palate - as with the nose - it all feels a little subdued - the berry fruit and spice from the nose are there along with some toffee and dried fruit. The almonds and barley sugars from the SMWS are here too. Again a little sour citrus.. Yummy	Thick strawberry jam, dried fruit and black berry notes, dry nut and brown sugar notes. Again almonds and brown sugar hare here - nice. The problem is I can't get a good taste without getting a bad nose - not keen on this one at all...
Finish	Lingering spice and berries - very dry.	Lingering spice and berries - dry.	Drier and fruitier than the other two, a little sulphur but less spicy.
Overall	I've tried a few Blair Athol drams before and to be honest none of the sherry maturation sits well with me, I really like a recent Lady of the Glen ex-bourbon but the none of these sherry casks were particularly good. There's an underlying nutty almond note and some barley sugar sweetness which the three samples shared intertwined with berry fruit and mustiness from the sherry casks. The Sipping Shed bottling was yummy - Christmas cake / pudding notes, strawberry toffos. The sulphur ridden 23yo Edition Spirits nearly went down the sink. You can't like them all...

Many thanks to @uk_whisky, @WhiskyResource & @StillSurreal (not necessarily in that order) for the sample swaps.