Jose-Massu-Espinel
Blair Athol 12 Year Flora & Fauna
Single Malt — Highlands, Scotland
Reviewed
June 10, 2022 (edited June 11, 2022)
The Flora and Fauna single malt series is a famous collection of some kind or famous malts that have special animals or plants in their labels. I believe this belonged to Diageo, but some of the distilleries have been sold, other have disappeared.
This one is a 12yo Blair Athol, bottled at 43%abv, the spirit animal of this bottle is the Otter, that supposedly lives in the peaty moorlands.
On the nose, very sweet. Toffee, Dulce de leche, Red fruits and Mint. Milk cream and pepper.
On the palate, it follows the sweet path with some fruitiness. Toffee, orange peel and dulce de leche. Very simple, but not bad.
Aftertaste, is where the swampy peaty moorlands appear. Hay, Tobacco and Salt. Very mineral and rocky.
Overall, this is an enjoyable dram, but way too simple. It has two or three recurring notes, well delivered but also very standard for a single malt. I don't necessarily think of this as "boring", but it is not interesting either. My score for it is 74 over 100.
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@cascode i have had a couple of Flora and Faunas, and i am still uninpressed
I’ve only had one sample taste if this, a few years back, and I remember a coffee and orange note to it, but yes it was also quite a simple profile. This, Benrinnes and Dailuaine are the sherry-monster Flora and Fauna expressions and while all 3 are nice I remember thinking at the time they would all be better as blend ingredients (their major use) than stand-alone single malts.