Side by side: Blair Athol

 Blair Athol spiritual home of Bells

There's only 1 official bottling but loads of Indie releases, here I'll try five.

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.

Side by side : Two Diageo Workhorses

Strathmill and Dufftown are two of Diageo's Speyside workhorses, producing malt whisky largely for the company's blends. Strathmill's goes into J&B and whilst there are some single malt bottlings of the Singleton of Dufftown most of it goes into Bells.

But what we have here is not the blends but two independent bottlings, a Strathmill from 1976 and a Dufftown from 1982, let see how they compare side by side!