So I was hoping to eventually get around to reviewing an Edradour eventually. Heck it would've probably been within the first 10 scotches I reviewed ever however my dad liked the mini of Edradour 12 Caledonia he had stashed away so much he didn't leave me a wee bit to try and analyze for myself! So instead I'm trying one that a friend got for me in Chicago from Binny's which is a very good whisky retailer that you should definitely check out if you ever find yourself in the Chicago area.
Edradour was once proudly known as Scotland's "smallest distillery" but since that is now officially taken by Strathearn Distillery it now calls itself "Scotland's Little Gem" so they don't get in trouble for false advertising. Edradour is located across the road from Blair Athol in the town of Pitlochry, Perthshire right in the middle of the Highlands. It was established in 1825 and was previously owned by Pernod Ricard before being acquired by Signatory Independant Bottlers in 2002. Only 18 casks are produced by this distillery every week and only 2 people work at the distillery, which is very impressive how such a small distillery has gained such a reputation since they were acquired by Signatory and likely even before that. All of their OBs outside of the 10 year are non-chill filtered and they even have a peated malt, Ballechin, that I hear is very nice as well.
So while I couldn't start with an OB I'm more then happy to have an IB to try especially given that it's bottled by the distillery's owning company! This single cask of Edradour was selected by Binny's Wine and Spirits Merchants in Illinois. It's aged for 10 years in a second fill sherry hogshead and is bottled at 59.6% ABV. This is one of 290 bottles that came from the hoggie. So let's see how this offering turned out!
- Colour:Amber
- Nose: Raisin, red fruits, cocoa, vanilla, caramel, tobacco leaf, orange citrus, big blasts of woodspice and small amounts of sulphur
- Palate: Fresh and candied plums, sultanas, oranges, lemon, brown sugar, vanilla, salted toffee, chocolate, wood tannins, some treenuts
- Finish: Long with roasted nuts, vanilla and orange marmalade
The palate on this whisky reminds me at times of an older style of Highland and Speyside whisky. With water the chocolate is more dominant on the palate, brown sugar begins to show up more and the finish leaves the fruit and nutty notes as more of a complimenting background. However, this whisky has a bit too much young rawness to it that hurts the experience at times and really needs some air to settle it down. Overall it's a solid young whisky but for the $90 USD I paid I probably wouldn't get this one again but it's definitely worth a try as the complexity is still very good for a 10 year old highland.
81 pts
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