Fast approaching its bicentennial celebrations, the small distillery of Edradour has been producing “a whisky of rare distinction” in Pitlochry since 1825.
Nestled in a pocket glen, in the hills above Pitlochry in the southern Highlands, lies Edradour, Scotland’s Little Gem.
The neat cluster of buildings, houses equipment only just capable of producing commercial quantities.
Indeed, Edradour stiller makes as much whisky in a year as many distilleries produce in a week, making Edradour single malt whiskey a rare pleasure for a fortunate few.
Despite its size and small batch production, the three man team actually produce quite a few different expressions of whisky – 25 altogether! For full details of their whiskies and the production process then click here for their site.
The 10 year old single malt is their flagship expression and is produced “using skills handed down over the generations. The men of Edradour distillery follow the standards of those who have gone before”. The bottle of the 10yo refers to itself as “The Distillery Edition”.
The single malt has been matured across a combination of bourbon barrels and Oloroso Sherry casks. The final whisky is presented at its natural colour, coming in at 40% ABV, and is currently available around £42 GBP for a full size bottle at the time of writing.
Nose
A real tussle of influences. An initial piercing candy sweetness and almost candle wax-like smell. Then richer flavours follow with orange peel, leather, toasted almonds, and clove.
Taste
An initial sweet and fruity set of flavours really entice you in before the stronger sherry and oak influences take hold. At first there are honeyed stone fruits, stewed apples, and very sweet banana flump flavours before the richer fruity flavours of orange peel, dates, and figs take over. Now that I’ve said figs, the next few sips don’t bring just figs but fig rolls! It’s all then superseded by the drying pepper, clove, and cinnamon set of spices courtesy of the sherried oak.
Finish
Rich fruitcake flavours tingle on the tonsils. And that’s all the ingredients too: raisins, orange, peel, cherries and all the baking spices. The sherry casks wrap things up with a drying oak finish but the lasting note for me is the sweet sugar and almond finish – compounding that fruitcake experience with the marzipan and icing topping.
Verdict
Lots of familiar sherry notes are at play here, but there are some unusual ones too, meaning that this hits different to your classic big sherried hitters. And it is worthwhile.
In fact, the more that you sit with it, the more that the sherry and oak seem to take over and continue to tantalise your tastebuds. That drying finish coaxes you in for another sip to get that sweet hit and enjoy the transition over to the richer and fruitier flavours before the dry finish sets in and invites you to repeat. Cheeky.
They clearly know what they are doing too, as this is bottled at the legal minimum of 40% ABV but still has quite the bite and overall strength to it. Adding a drop of water or two doesn’t really hold it back either as the sweeter flavours seem to dissipate in favour of the richer fruits, sherry oak and its spices, which still provide a rich and fruity experience with that hallmark drying finish.
Occasionally, I will find myself drinking an old favourite and realise that I’ve never posted about. This is one of those instances!
When I started getting into whisky – and scotch whisky in particular – this is a bottle that seemed to appear as a B-lister or even C-lister in the category. Thats not meant with any disrespect, I just mean in terms of profile and availability, it wasn’t the first one you’d come across, but you could find it if you wanted. What it does deserve though is its place in the higher echelons of the category, for sure.
I’ve always been intrigued by the attitude at the distillery. They seemingly haven’t deviated from their ways, and in the many years that I’ve drank Edradour, the packaging and recipe hasn’t seemed to change, and they clear clearly proud to have stood by what they have been doing for nearly 200 years! And why not?
I guess that sticking to their approach – just the 3 person team working within the small environment they have available and to the same recipes, and so on… – not only does that maintain their traditions but it also gives them a repeatable small batch approach which has kept them going and now also sets them apart.
I would be keen to try this Edradour 10 next to the Ballechin 10 too. Ballechin is their heavily peated expression named after a nearby closed distillery. It’s packaged in the same distinctively shaped squat bottle and warrants a side by side comparison as the Ballechin 10 has a similar bourbon barrel and sherry cask maturation process.
Since first being introduced to Edradour, they have always managed to stay at a modest price for this 10yo (around £40 atm) and that seems to align with the distillery’s approach: sticking to what they know and keeping it as their predecessors made it.
I’ve only tried a snifter of the Caledonia / 12 year old Edradour and I remember favouring this 10 year old. I’ll have to revisit it – purely in the name of research – and sample it alongside “The Distillery Edition”. [ed: as far as I’m aware that name is a reference to this being their signature house style and flagship representation of the distillery itself, rather than being only available at the distillery]
This may be “Scotland’s Little Gem” but it makes big hits, and whilst it may be considered as something a little different, it is diversity that makes us, after all, and a bottle of this readily sits on the WU whisky shelf.
M
Dram disclosure: This is my own bottle. All notes are intended as an honest, fair, and independent review of the whisky, and not as a promotion. Please drink responsibly. Please drink wisely.
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