The name Edradour is first mentioned in 1837, but a 'farm' distillery under
the name Glenforres was founded in or around 1825. At one time many of
these small distillery were operational in Perthshire, but Edradour is the
only one to survive to this day. Until Kilchoman on Islay became operational
in 2005, Edradour could claim to be Scotland's smallest distillery with an
annual production capacity of a mere 90,000 litres (just like Kilchoman).
Lately, more small distilleries like Daftmill and Loch Ewe were opened.

The Edradour distillery is located on the edge of the Southern Highlands,
better known as the Midlands. Bottlings have been released onder the
name Edradour, but in the past some batches were bottled as 'Glenforres'.
A more heavily peated 'Balechin' variety has become available as well.

In the summer of 2003 some of the malt maniacs had the pleasure of visiting the distillery, shortly
after Andrew Symington (of Signatory Vintage fame) had purchased Edradour and Iain Henderson
(former manager at Laphroaig distillery) had signed on as Operation Director. It was a beautiful day
in Perthshire; Iain and the tour guide took their time to answer even the most maniacal questions.
Because Edradour is such a small and traditional distillery we had the opportunity to investigate
every little aspect of the complete malt whisky distillation process.

The availability of some expressions of Edradour is a 'litmus test' for liquorists. If they don't have a handful of different bottlings available it might be time to start looking around for another whisky supplier. These days, these small brands are the most interesting to watch.

As I already mentioned before, it remains to
be seen if Edradour can actually hang on to
its 'Scotland's Smallest Distillery' claim.
I guess it depends how 'smallest' is defined.

Soon after Andrew Symington and Iain Henderson took over at Edradour, they
started distillation of a peated malt under the name 'Ballechin'. Peated malts
went out of fashion in the 1980's on the Scottish mainland, but they're back... 

Before Andrew and Iain took control of Edradour, the distillery
had built an unenviable reputation for batch variation. Bottles
that were released in the 1990's (depicted at the left) ranged
from average quality to frankly rather poor. I think Andrew's
decision to focus on single cask bottlings and a wide range
of special finishes (Sauternes, Burgundy, etc.) was brilliant;
he turned Edradour's biggest weakness into a strength.
Edradour now holds Scotland's broadest cask portfolio.

Edradour had been in the hands of American owners for almost a century when it was obtained by
Campbell Distillers (a subsidiary of Pernod Ricard) in 1982. They added a visitor centre to the distillery;
probably one of the first examples of what is now a pretty common feature in Scotland. Edradour has
the required minimum of two stills and uses mostly traditional equipment like worm tubs to cool the
spirit. The wort is cooled by the last 'Morton's refrigerator' operating in the Scotch whisky industry.
Because Edradour is such a small distillery and part of the equipment is so quaint, they have been
struggling to achieve some consistency between batches before 2003, but with limited success.

1) Edradour is located near the charming little town of Pitlochry - and if you're staying over in the town I can heartily recommend walking to and from the distillery along the winding road through the hills.

2) Being (one of) the smallest distilleries in Scotland, bottlings of Edradour showed strong batch variation during the 1990's. After Andrew Symington took over many of the new bottlings were special finishes with not a lot of 'distillery character' left. Between you and me; that old distillery character was more of a 'fault' and won't really be missed.

3) In E-pistle 16/16 ('old calendar') our Canadian maniac Davin de Kergommeaux reports on his tasting of various fairly recent bottlings of Ballechin & Edradour at Whisky Live in June 2005.

Here are my notes on some old 'core range' OB's, followed by a selection of my personal favourites.
Just remember that in this case a different batch or bottling will probably be VERY different indeed...

Edradour 10yo (40%, OB, Bottled +/- 1998, Campbell, 70cl) -
Nose: Soft and malty. Nothing offensive in the nose, but nothing to fall in love with either.
Taste: Malty and smooth. It reminded me a bit of the Dufftown 10yo OB - but less complex.
Score: 70 points - just a tad below average. Very drinkable but no high flyer.

Edradour 10yo (40%, OB, Bottled +/- 2001, Pernod Ricard)
Nose: Unbalanced start with sour vomit notes. Soap. Sherried. Farmy, organic notes. Woody. Sweet.
Dusty. Interesting development; very sour after 10 minutes. Later on more smoke emerges.
Meanwhile the sherry notes grow stronger. Lemon sweets after 20 minutes. Nuttier with 5 drops of water.
Taste: Ough! Very strange at the start. Molasses & Mint. Eucalyptus? Malty. Slightly oily. Old vomit. Rotting wood.
A very unpleasant chemical undercurrent. Bitter. With time, it grows even worse. Stomach acid.
Score: 42 points - the taste is really horrific! Batch variation or a bad cork?

Edradour 10yo 1993/2004 Burgundy Finish (57.4%, OB, cask #04/13/3, 458 bottles)
Nose: Wowie! Big and fruity. Mint. Spices and some very mild organics. Cinnamon.
It's quite spectacular, although I can't really identify a lot of the specific aroma's.
Taste: Eugh... Very herbal start. it's not exactly perfumy, but it comes close.
Cinnamon. An aspirin bitterness in the finish. Oh, how it falls from grace. Too bad...
Score: 82 points - this is a malt you have to work at. Not MOTR, that much is certain...

Edradour 10yo 1993/2004 Sauternes Finish (56.8%, OB, cask #04/11/2, 445 bottles)
Nose: Smooth and slightly oily at first, but growing more powerful quickly. Fruits.
Maybe a hint of peat? Rubber (bicycle tires). Then more spices. Cinnamon again.
Taste: Once again a bit of an odd taste. A chemical fruitiness like the last one.
It grows very, very woody in the finish. Extremely dry as well. Hints of smoke and perfume.
Candy on the palate, but not extremely sweet. Dry and woody impressions dominate with time
Score: 82 points - this is an experience... but it's probably not to everybody's liking.

Edradour 11yo 1994/2005 (59.6%, OB, SfTC, Madeira finish, cask #04/316/4, 488 bottles)
Nose: Light and a tad dusty. A little sharp and not too expressive. The faintest organics. Unevolved.
Taste: Solid, sweet and fruity start. Big centre. Dry, cool and a tad metallic in the finish. Some nice tannins.
Score: 74 points - not really my cup of tea, overall. The finish has a 'bourbony flatness' I'm not crazy about.

Edradour 11yo 1994/2005 (57.1%, OB, Straight from The Cask, Gaja Barolo finish)
Nose: Fruit sweets. Some spices and organics in the background. Quickly growing complexity.
Oh yeah, this is turning into a sherry monster! The spices and organics grow more powerful over time.
Taste: Smooth start. Smoky and fruity in the centre, then the tannins emerge. Lovely mouth feel.
Score: 88 points - it has a few odd sides to it (like a taste of Nivea salve or baby oil) but I like it a lot.

Edradour 21yo 1983/2004 Port Finish (53.6%, OB, cask #03/1041, 776 bottles)
Nose: Quite mellow and malty at first, but quickly some organics emerge. It grows sweeter and spicier.
The organics open up nicely. Oriental dishes. After tasting it I got some 'Blue Curacao' in the nose as well.
Taste: Oy! A strange chemical sweetness, like in Blue Curacao liqueur.  Smurf whisky?
Nasty! It grows woodier and winier towards the finish, which is a good thing, really.
Score: 79 points - extremely interesting, but I wouldn't actively recommend it to anyone.

Edradour 30yo 1973/2003 (53.4%, OB, Butt #97)
Nose: Very well balanced with plumes and organics. Hints of 'Maggi'. A very pleasant surprise.
Taste: was very satisfying as well; pretty much everything there. This is good stuff.
Score: 88 points - without a doubt the best Edradour I've tried so far...

Edradour 23yo 1983/2006 Port Finish (52,1%, Signatory Vintage, C#06/0554, 743 Bts.)
Nose: Sweet & rich in the nose with a hint of organics in the background. Rotting milk powder.
There's something chemical about it. Maybe this is a little too 'doctored' for some...
Taste: Overly sweet on the palate - clearly a finished whisky. Some smoke as well.
Score: 83 points - a little weird, but the wood clearly present in the finish.

These were not all the (official and independent) expressions of Edradour whisky I've tried over the years.
My Track Record used to contain a complete overview of all the single malts I've tried, but when I passed the 2000 malts mark (and the complete whisky list wouldn't fit on two separate HTML pages anymore) I gave up. My Liquid Log still contains my tasting notes on most single malts I've sampled and scored, though. You can find a specific expression through the search box at the top of each distillery profile. The mAlmanac now contains (purely personal) selections of some of the best single malts and the worst whiskies I've tried so far - as well as the ones with the highest 'Bang-For-Your-Buck' value. But those tasting notes and scores only reflect my own, purely personal opinions. On Serge's distillery profile on Whiskyfun you can find another perspective on the whisky made at this distillery. Check out the Malt Maniacs Monitor on Malt Maniacs for my scores on all expressions I've tried so far - and those of almost all the other certified malt maniacs as well. The Malt Maniacs Matrix contains a few thousand single malts that were sampled and scored by at least four different malt maniacs, so you can compare our individual opinions.
 
 

With reported phenol levels of somewhere around 50PPM
Ballechin is one of the most heavily peated malts produced
outside the island of Islay. The thirst for peated malts has
grown so much that they can't make enough on Islay anymore.

Together with the wide range of special finishes in obscure casks, Edradour now offers one of the
most varied finish portfolio's in Scotland. Their 'brand consistency' is an altogether different issue.
These days Edradour doesn't seem to have its own 'house style' anymore...

The square feet of the distillery buildings?
Surface of the distillery grounds? Annual output?
I don't have the exact figures, but I imagine Daftmill or Kilchoman could stake some claims of
their own in this area these days - and the production capacity of Bladnoch is quite limited too.