Edradour 12yo Cask Strength
Batch 1 | 57.8% ABV
When is a core range not a range?
Scotland’s Little Gem. A tagline that adorns the bottle and encapsulates both its beauty as a location and the small capacity the distillery has.
Its 90,000 litres per annum of maximum potential output once gave it the title of the smallest distillery in Scotland, but the explosion of new distilleries as well as its expansion to 260,000 lpa has now put it way down in 18th place according to the 2023 Malt Whisky Yearbook. Nevertheless, it’s unlikely to be operating close to that capacity, so we are still talking about a very small distillery in the grand scheme of things.
Visitors flock to see the unique beauty of the place, with its quaint white and red buildings, matching wooden picket fences and the babbling stream which runs through it. Even though great whisky can just as easily be produced in a metal shed on an industrial estate, there is something wonderful about these idyllic settings that elevate the whisky experience in our minds.
Unfortunately it has yet to re-open to visitors since the pandemic, with staffing shortages blamed according to the Edradour website. Hopefully that will change in 2024 and beyond. I’d love to be there and experience it one day.
When it comes to the whisky, what I have tasted so far has been good stuff, including a recent bottling of Edradour-Ballechin, which was a vatting of a single sherry butt of Edradour and three bourbon casks of their peated Ballechin. It was less than £50 a bottle and I really enjoyed the one I had. It appears to have largely disappeared from shelves now and I can’t see signs of a replacement, but it can still be found with a quick Google.
I have also tried a few samples of others, such as the sherry and bourbon cask Ibisco decanters, but I would say I have yet to fully connect with the distillery in the way I have with many others.
That lack of connection may be down to their range, which it has to be said that it is a little all over the place and seems to lack a solid core. Their website talks about them having five ranges. There is the Classic, Cask Strength, Wine Finished, Wine Matured and Ballechin.
The Classic range consists of the entry level 10 year old, which is bottled at a disappointing 40%, especially when you consider owners Signatory Vintage have recently made the decision to ditch anything below 46% from their independent bottlings. I hear it is a decent whisky regardless of the low strength, but I still can’t bring myself to spend £45 and buy one. It does come in 5 and 20cl, which I always like to see, so maybe I can grab one of those soon and find out for myself.
Also in this range is the 12 year old Caledonian, which uses the Saltire on the label and puts more emphasis on the word Caledonian than it does on Edradour. The Edradour website talks about it being a single cask chosen by songwriter Dougie Maclean. Is that still the case?
This has been around for some time and there is no mention of it being a single cask on the label from what I can see. I guess in many ways it is a 46% version of the bottle being reviewed today, and I think it would be better if they rebranded it as their core range 12 year old. The rest of the range is made up of this 12 year old cask strength, which also features in the cask strength range, the Signatory branded 10 year old single cask, and their cream liqueur.
I would ditch the Signatory branding and put that in an Edradour branded bottle and label. Why produce an independent bottling of your own whisky? This core, or “Classic” range, doesn’t appear to be much of a range.
The rest of what appears to be available consists of a smorgasbord of small batches of varying ages, cask types, and often high prices. That’s fine and there is plenty of variety to pick and choose from, but I think the core of the range needs more of an identity.
Then we come to Ballechin, the name given to their peated whiskies. I would argue they should call it peated Edradour and create a stronger brand for the distillery. The Edradour name is still embossed on the glass and on the foil around the neck, but it feels a little disjointed. The Ballechin range does have a 10 year old at 46%, but beyond that it appears to be mostly special releases. It’s a small thing and they aren’t the only distillery to create a separate brand for their peated output, with Lochranza using Machrie Moor and Tomintoul branding their peated stuff as Old Ballantruan, but I would rather they kept their stronger brand identities too.
Moving on to a more positive slant, I think the bottle shape and design is great, and I would go as far as saying it is one of the most beautiful out there. If I was handed a bottle without knowing it was 70cl, I would guess it was only 50, such is its small and dumpy stature, which also fits in perfectly with the theme of this small distillery. The embossed ‘Edradour’ around the shoulder and ‘Scotland’s Little Gem’ around the heel, with the tactile wooden stopper and traditional, yet modern-looking label is excellent.
If they put everything in this same beautiful bottle and label design it will work much better. Perhaps this release is a sign that they are looking to produce a more cohesive range in future. It has been introduced as a replacement for their 50cl Straight From The Cask, and the increase to 70cl is another positive.
Review
Edradour 12yo, Cask Strength, Batch 1, 57.8% ABV
£68.75 paid, £95 RRP with wide availability
I was keen to buy one from the moment I saw this new cask strength release. This could be the moment I finally connect with Edradour, but I initially was put off by the £90-95 price tag. I guess it isn’t too far from Bunnahbhain’s 12 year old cask strength at £80, but it was a step too far for me.
I then noticed The Whisky Exchange were selling it for £68.75. I have no idea why they had priced it more than £20 cheaper than everywhere else, but I wasn’t going to ask questions and got one straight into the basket and through the checkout. I was half expecting a cancellation notice in the coming hours, but thankfully that wasn’t the case and a few days later the bottle arrived.
Batch 1 is often the best time to catch a whisky, with the need for the whisky to impress to get people talking and establish repeat customers. This isn’t always the case of course, and as Drummond discovered with the aforementioned Bunnahabhain, the second release can be better. As an aside, that’s a sentiment I have heard others express too. I bought a bottle of batch 1, but didn’t buy batch 2 even after hearing it was better, such was my apathy towards the first release. I am also one of the few that doesn’t seem to get on with the standard 12 from Bunnahabhain, so maybe it is a distillery that doesn’t quite work for my personal preferences. I prefer their peated stuff.
Anyway, with Edradour’s range appearing quite flaky, who knows if there will be a batch 2. Ben Nevis brought out a single batch of their cask strength 10 year old which has become quite legendary now, although I baulked at its £99 price tag and didn’t buy one. That was a few years ago now and it looks like a second batch will likely never materialise.
This Edradour is fully matured in first and second-fill oloroso sherry butts and comes with a 2011 vintage statement. The label gives us lots of information, including the seven cask numbers that make up the release of 4663 bottles, which were filled on 12th May 2023. Despite getting it for less, I am hoping it will justify its £90+ price tag.
At time of writing The Whisky Exchange have restocked at £82.75, which is closer to where I would expect it to be priced, but they seem to be an outlier.
Nose
Waves of demerara sugar, buttery caramel and darker treacle notes, with plump and juicy prunes, raisins and cherries. There is a big coffee note, along with orange oil and zest. A slight balsamic element adds an acidity, with polished mahogany, musty autumn leaves and old leather.
Palate
Thick and oily. It starts off with the sweet dark sugars and fruity apple and blackcurrants, quickly followed by a big whack of bitter espresso coffee and dark chocolate, and if you are a lover of coffee this will be one for you. I count myself as one of those people. As it develops there’s mixed dried fruits, with liquorice, old leather, cinnamon, clove and peppery spice. In the finish the coffee lingers, with some chilli infused dark chocolate.
The Dregs
It’s a big, rich, flavour bomb. It has all of those bold sherry notes and they’re dialled up to eleven. A full teaspoon of water in a standard pour opens things up nicely. As I have said earlier I don’t have huge amounts of experience with Edradour, but I would be surprised if there was much of the spirit DNA here, it has been taken over by the sherry, but when the casks are good that isn’t always a negative. It has been matured fully for 12 years in what appear to be very active casks.
So, why only a 6/10? It’s good whisky, no doubts about that, and sherry cask heads will love this, but I find it slightly lacking in character, or a hook that catches my attention. Sorry that sounds a touch vague, but I think many of you reading will have had a similar experience. You like it, but it's not quite love.
This isn’t a cheap whisky and I wish it was available widely for the price I paid, but I think if you can find it for not much in excess of £80 it is fair in today’s crazy market. The £95 RRP smarts a little too.
If you are looking for an excellent version of Edradour without spending as much, I would go with the 8 year old Edradour-Ballechin I mentioned earlier, which I would give a confident 7/10. That sherry and peat combination rarely misses. I’ve gone back to my tasting notes for that and it is remarkable how many similarities there are despite the peated bourbon cask element. If you see that available it is well worth a punt. Having said that, Broddy only scored it a 5/10, so we have slightly differing opinions on that one.
One line I did take from Broddy’s description of that whisky is something that applies to this one, “it’s just middle of the road on everything except for intensity”. I think that encapsulates it perfectly. The intensity of flavour is there, but it doesn’t quite excite.
I’m still not sure I have really connected with Edradour, but I am happy to keep trying.
Score: 6/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. RT