Review No.75. Edradour 10 Year Old

In contrast to Tomatin which I recently reviewed, Edradour is a very small distillery also based in the highlands.  Their range consists of this 10 year old, 12 year old and a few older ones finished in different casks.  The distillery also produces another brand called Ballechin which is a peated version of their malts. Edradour is relatively unknown and you would have to go online to buy a bottle, or visit a specialist retailer.  I get the impression that this one has a cult following.  My research indicated that this is a characterful single malt so I was looking forward to trying this.  I purchased this as a 5cl miniature.

Whisky: Edradour 10 Year Old Single Malt, 40%

Nose: Metallic, vegatal, floral, vanilla, butterscotch, lemon sponge cake, oak

Taste: Malt, cream, biscuits, heather, hay, grass, tannins

Finish: Malt and oak, mettalic note

Score: 2

Summary: This is a challenging single malt.  I judged this on a 5cl sample and maybe my opinion would be different if I had a full bottle over a number of months.  There are astringent metallic and vegetal notes to this which I find challenging and I needed some water to dampen this and open up.  The malt is very present but the mixed bag of astringent and malty notes doesn’t didn’t stack up to me.  I am aware that this particular distillery struggles with consistency so I may have picked a poor batch.

Scoring scale: My scores reflect a balance of the overall experience, availability and cost for a whisky,

1 – not to my preference

2 – tastes fine but does not excite me

3 – more to my liking and would revisit occasionally

4 – very much to my liking and would consider as a regular feature on my whisky shelf

5 – permanent feature on my whisky shelf

Image source: www.thewhiskyexchange.com