Scotland, Southern Highlands. Distillery operational. Owner: Diageo

Located right at the entrance to the village of Pitlochry, the Blair Athol distillery has become fairly well-known among collectors due to the quality of its bottlings from the 1960s. In terms of both aromas and aesthetics, its 8 Year Old and 12 Year Old are worthy representatives of the prosperous post-WWII period (1945-1975). This meant that, for a long time, Blair Athol was limited to these two sherry cask bottlings. Later, under the influence of the United Distillers group, it joined the Rare Malts Selection, Flora & Fauna, Manager's Choice and Manager's Dram ranges. It is the primary malt used in the Bell's blend.

A Blair Athol distilled in 2006 and bottled in 2020, matured for 14 years in a bourbon hogshead, followed by a first-fill Oloroso hogshead. This is a limited edition of 283 bottles for the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) was founded in Edinburgh in 1983 by a group of friends with a particular passion for whisky. The club selects casks whose bottles are then only available to members. The name of the distillery is not mentioned on the label but each distillery is given a number as the malt is bottled. The first cask selected by the SMWS, for example, was Glenfarclas, and it therefore uses the number 1. The second number refers to the number of bottlings from each distillery. The club was sold to Glenmorangie in 2004 and then to a group of investors in 2016.