Blair Athol 2008-2021 - 12 Year Old - Adelphi - Single Cask 311135

Originally founded in 1798 as Aldour, Blair Athol was taken over by Arthur Bell & Sons in 1933 and has been a keystone malt for the Bell’s blend ever since. In 1985 Bell’s was bought by Guinness, with Blair Athol later becoming part of United Distillers and then Diageo in subsequent mergers. 

Blair Athol’s importance to Bell’s and other blends has resulted in limited official bottlings. Arthur Bell & Sons released Blair Athol as an 8-year-old and occasionally a 12-year-old from the late 1960s onwards; these were replaced in the late 1980s by a well-regarded sherried 12-year-old Flora & Fauna edition that has been the only ongoing bottling over the last few decades. Occasional one-off Blair Athols have been bottled for the Rare Malts, Manager’s Dram, Special Releases and the distillery’s Bicentenary. Independent Blair Athol is abundant.

The Adelphi name was revived in 1993 by Jamie Walker, the great-grandson of Archibald Walker, founder of the original 19th century Adelphi whisky distillery in Glasgow which had closed in the 1930s. 

The new Adelphi whisky company, with Charles Maclean serving as Chief Nose on the tasting panel, quickly established themselves at the forefront of the new generation of independent whisky bottlers, releasing a string of top class casks of single malt and grain whiskies, with early highlights including outstanding bottlings of long-aged Ardbeg and Springbank.

Jamie Walker sold Adelphi in 2004 to investors Keith Falconer and Donal Houston, the latter of whom is laird of Ardnamurchan Estate in the Highlands. Adelphi began construction of their Ardnamurchan distillery in 2013 and released the first Ardnamurchan single malt whisky in 2020.