• Craig Athol 5 Years Old Very Fine Old Scotch Whisky 1970’s
  • Craig Athol 5 Years Old Very Fine Old Scotch Whisky 1970’s

Craig Athol 5 Years Old Very Fine Old Scotch Whisky 1970’s

$450 AUD

40% ABV

75 cl

This long-departed blend was originally owned by The Atholl Distilleries Ltd. A clue to the origin of the brand can be found in the name Athol, from the Blair Athol distillery founded all the way back in 1798, and during the 20th century was a key malt in Bell’s. Craig Athol is a rare find, with those bottlings which do appear usually being from the 1970s and 80s.

In 1973 the flamboyant Raymond Miquel became the Managing Director – and later Chairman – of Bell’s, and it may well have been him who launched the Craig Athol blend along with ‘The Blair Athol Highland Malt’. Both whiskies were labelled with the words: ‘Matured, blended and bottled in Scotland by The Atholl Distilleries Ltd, Pitlochry’, and both were sold in Italy. This example bears the Italian importer’s name.

Craig Athol offers collectors a nostalgic glimpse into Scotland's whisky landscape of the 1970s, a brand that has since become increasingly difficult to find, making it a coveted addition for serious collectors of vintage Scotch. It captures a significant transitional period in the Scotch whisky industry, when traditional production methods were meeting modernisation and changing global tastes. Craig Athol represented the quintessential Highland character that defined Scotch whisky during this decade.

In its brief life the Craig Athol blend sported a variety of different age-statements, from none at all to a 5-year-old, 12-year-old and a special clear-glass, decanter-shaped bottle for a 20-year-old bottling. Today it occasionally appears as a rarity on whisky auction websites, often with an Italian strip stamp, and dated from the 1970s and ‘80s.

Tasting Notes.

Nose: A delightfully complex spicy and perfumed nose.

Palate: Very smooth with a caramel texture.

Finish: Long and dry with gentle warm spice.

(Cask Cartel)

 

This bottle is located in the United Kingdom.

THE ATHOLL DISTILLERIES LTD

The Atholl Distilleries Ltd, was one of many subsidiary companies of Arthur Bell & Sons Ltd. Why Atholl was spelt with two l’s whereas Blair Athol distillery and the company’s main brand, Craig Athol, only had one, is lost in the mysteries of time.

Blair Athol distillery in the 20th century became a core malt in the Bell’s blend and was finally purchased by Arthur Bell & Sons in 1933 as a closed distillery that was not reopened until 1949.

Yet the distillery and the Craig Athol brand were but a tiny distraction to the Bell’s blend, which surged to become the UK’s most popular Scotch whisky in 1978. Seven years later the company was the subject of a hostile takeover by Guinness and subsequently became part of Diageo. In the process, The Atholl Distilleries Ltd disappeared as a functioning entity, as did so many subsidiaries and their brands as Diageo followed its course of brand assimilation under its main labels, of which Bell’s remains one.

Other MyWhiskyJourneys Whiskies