I am such an idiot. While this is not news to me, this one here is undeniable proof.
A little while ago, RvB shared this bottle in my little bottle-share group, and thoroughly liking Blair Athol, I jumped on it. A 10cl sample for me!
So I got the sample a few days later. I tried it a couple of weeks after that, and I even looked it up on Whiskybase. And only then did I find out I also have a bottle of this.
Even worse! I don’t only have a bottle of it. I have already tried the whisky a few times and I’ve used it in a tasting. And still, no idea that I just bought a sample of something I could just have a glass of without even leaving my chair.
As said, I’m an idiot…
Anyway, sherried Blair Athol is generally pretty decent at the least. When selected by a good bottler, and at cask strength, it should be very good indeed!
Sniff:
Very modern sherry on the nose, as in, modern sherried whisky. Lots of gentle baking spices and some dried fruit. Banana crisps, cinnamon, even some Nutella. I get some orange and date, wet oak.
Sip:
The palate is a bit sharper than I expected, and therefore feels a bit more thin than the nose promised. There’s chili heat, oak shavings. Banana crisps and cinnamon are present too, hazelnuts with a whiff of dark chocolate.
Swallow:
The finish brings a bit more sweetness than I expected, or prefer. A bit more like supermarket pastry, instead of ‘bakery level’. Cinnamon and raisins, sugared puff pastry, orange, mango.
It is a bit on the sweet side, but there’s lots of things happening here. The combination of baked goods and dried fruits, even hints of chocolate and nuts make for a rather complex whisky that is really, really good!
In the end, having a bit extra of this is no punishment at all, but it is a bit of a waste of money…
88/100
Malt Fascination 