Scotland, Central Highlands: Single malt whisky through the producing distilleries: history, making, production and tasting notes

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Central Highlands:

Edradour

Tasting notes Distillery pictures

The distillery

Edradour Distillery
Pitlochry,
Perthshire
PH16 5JP
+44 1796 472 095

Owner: Signatory

Creation date 1837

Photos Comments

The oldest official documents say the first distillery in Edradour has been build in 1837.
However it seems that some farmers joined in a kind of cooperative society as soon as 1825 to produce their legal whisky, mostly for their own consumption, sharing the costs. This cooperative was that successful that they decided in 1841 to produce for the market.
The distillery has been owned by different people before being taken over in 1933 by William Whiteley who made Edradour the main component of his then famous blend, King Ransome. Other blends containing Edradour are House of Lords and Clan Campbell.
More recently, the French group Pernod-Ricard took the control over the distillery in 1992 through Campbell Distillers, and sold it to the in dependant bottler Signatory Vintage on 22 july 2002.
Edradour is the smallest distillery of Scotland. Just 3 people are working full time at the distillery.

The whisky

The sites below offer tasting notes for this distillery. Please click on the logo to access this notes.

		www.whisky-distilleries.info
		passionnesdumalt.free.fr
		Club o. mosellan des amateurs de whisky
		www.whisky-distilleries.info
		www.whisky-fun.com

Geography

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Central Highlands

The County of Perth, between the Lowlands and the Higlands is famous for its hilly landscapes.
About one hundred distilleries were settled in the area during the 19th century, and just a few of them survived, and some others were build during the 20th century. The area is wider than just the Perth county, as Dalwinnie, in the South of Inverness county is also included in that area.

Click on the map for a list of the distilleries of the area, on the title for further information
about the Central Highlands area, and if you want to make an "alphabetical journey" through the area, please
click on one of the pagode roofs, according to the direction you want to follow

Photos of the distillery

Edradour is the smallest and one of the most visited Scottish distilleries. Only 3 people work there, including Iain Henderson who became manager after the distillery has been purchased by Signatory.
Signatory wanted to own a distillery, to ensure it position on the independent bottlers market. The reason officially announced says that an independent bottler should own a distillery to ensure his stocks. If this was the only reason, one could wander why such an important in dependant bottler has chosen Edradour, the smallest distillery of the country...
Before purchasing Edradour, Andrew Symington tried to buy Glencadam, which is a much bigger distillery in terms of production.
However, I guess the reason of this operation is more the prestige of that distillery than the stock problem.
Having asked Iain Henderson to manage the distillery is certainly not insignificant neither.
Iain Henderson was retired, after having managed 14 distilleries, amongst others, Laphroaig and Bladnoch.
My meeting with this distillation wise man was one of the most magic moments of my trip in Scotland. He is a real professional distiller, and a visit of Edradour led by Iain Henderson is an unforgettable event in the life of a whisky lover.
The whole distillation processes are concentrated in a single room.
The smallest authorized stills for whisky distillation, the mash tun, the wash back and the malt mill, everything in just one tiny room... This makes a change, after having visited some very big industrial distilleries in Scotland...
The fashion of wood finishes has also reached Edradour. Port and Burgundy finishes are now available, and another new peaty version of Edradour will be marketed soon. It will however not bear the name of Edradour .

Edradour

Photos by Philippe Amard

Edradour

Last update: Saturday, 25-Jul-2009 16:51:18 CEST
Fri 12 03 2010, 08:18 - 51 visiteurs au cours de la dernière heure et 9 visiteurs sur le site en ce moment.
Copyright:Jean-Marie Putz (2003-2007)

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