Edradour Eilean Dubh (60.7%)

An Edradour, a distillery bottling, at 60.7%. Edradour is a Highland single malt from a 19th century farm distillery run by a handful of hands. Under Signatory the range has grown to a wide run of sherry and wine cask bottlings.

The spirit was distilled slowly in the old farm stillhouse on Ben Vrackie water, the worm tubs lending a weighty, oily character. First fill bourbon gave a fuller vanilla and a touch of coconut from the lactones. Without an age statement, vanillin sweetness and a nutty chocolate point to good years in oak. A gentle maturation suits the oily make, the nutty richness growing with time. Years in oak round the spirit, the dried fruit and chocolate deepening over the oily core. A 2018 expansion added a second still house, the production still small and traditional. Its water comes from the Ben Vrackie springs in the hills above the distillery.

Bottled at a cask strength 60.7%, it is rich. A rich, oily orchard fruit and almond, with a soft vanilla from the oak. The mouthfeel is thick and oily, the fruit on a creamy body. The finish is long, oily and gently spiced. This is a rich Highland malt from the pocket glen at Pitlochry.