Edradour 9 Years Old 2011 Cask #34 (van Wees)

An Edradour of a 9 year old chosen by the Dutch bottler van Wees, distilled in 2011, from cask 34, bottled at 58.3%, one of 661 bottles. Edradour is a Highland single malt from a 19th century farm distillery run by a handful of hands. A 2018 expansion added a second still house, the production still small and traditional.

It was distilled from unpeated malt in tiny copper stills and worm tubs, for a full, oily make of dried fruit and chocolate. It was matured in an Oloroso cask, the wood working slowly into the rich malt. At an extractive age eugenol lends a clove note and lactones a coconut, the spirit rich, oily and nutty. The full bodied spirit shows the cask clearly, the sherry and oak to the fore. Its tiny copper stills and worm tubs give a rich, oily, full bodied spirit. The cool Highland air of the glen gives a slow, even maturation in the small Edradour warehouses.

At a natural 58.3% it is full and oily. Baked apple, marzipan and a creamy malt, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Beneath it run dried fruit, chocolate and a soft oil. Dried fruit, chocolate and a soft oak see out a long finish. This is a rich Highland malt from the pocket glen at Pitlochry.