Fragrant Drops Blair Athol 2009

Today I will be reviewing the Fragrant Drops Blair Athol 2009, bottled for Whisky in Leiden 2025! This Blair Athol, fully matured in a Red Wine Barrique, has a very special meaning for me. The Whisky in Leiden event was the very last of my time at Salud Spirits, as I’ve started working for the Druiventuin in Leiden starting today! Which also happens to be the host of the festival. De Druiventuin (more famous in our community for their webshop Whiskysite.nl not only provided me with a very cool new job (with an amazing team to work in) they also provide me with some samples for the blog, which allows me to put more focus on recent releases, and thus provide more interesting content for my followers as I’ll be reviewing more bottles that are (still) widely available.

I’ll also be posting some links to the article in my blog to the bottle in de whiskysite webshop, but still no commissions are being made and I’ll always give my tasting notes independently and honestly. As I don’t do ratings anyway, but instead focus on accurate tasting notes, I don’t doubt my own objectivity for a second and I hope you won’t either.

As a first review since being back (after my mom sadly passed away a month ago, which led me to be offline for a while), I thought it’d be fitting to review this bottle which is both delicious, and with some special meaning linking to my new job behind it. I hope you’ll enjoy this one as much as I did!

Tasting Notes: Fragrant Drops Blair Athol 2009

Stats:

Distillery: Blair Athol
Age: 15 years old
Cask: Red Wine Barrique
ABV: 58% (116 proof)
Natural Colour: Yes
Chill-filtered: No

Nose:

Ripe fruits and Turkish Delight. This dram gives off “healthy” candy vibes, the kind you might have disliked as a kid, but started to greatly appreciate as you grew older. Powdered sugar sprinkled cinnamon buns with a strawberry glaze to boot, rounds the nose off beautifully.

Palate:

Spicy chai tea paired with cotton candy and strawberry milkshakes with a cherry on top. The high ABV is very noticeable, but for the more experienced drinkers not in an unpleasant way. In fact it helps pronounce the multitude of fruity flavours in this dram. It’s like the whole roll of fruit gums, every candied flavour is there. From strawberries, to raspberries and all the way to apricots. A fruit gum bonanza!

Finish:

The finish is long and opposed to the very sweet palate, there’s a very slight and utterly pleasant bitter note here. Which makes the whole dram feel a lot more well rounded. It’s the wine that shines through most beautiful and pleasant, in the finish of this dram. The flavours remind me of a good red wine (think Barolo), aged to perfection.

Food Pairing:

Pair this dram with some extra dark chocolate, some candied orange peels or even some cured meats with Sriracha sauce, for a real funky effect. But trust me, with candied orange peel and dark chocolate you’ll get the absolute most out of this dram!

Verdict:

An absolute gem of a dram. The lads of Fragrant Drops have managed to bottle yet another stellar whisky and it makes me proud that this has the name of my new employer on the bottle! And best of all (and no this is not a marketing technique haha) it’s great value. At roughly 95 euro for a cask strength 15 year old Blair Athol, this bottle will hit my shelves very fast!