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