Edradour Sauternes Cask Matured 9 Years Old 2006

A 9 year old Edradour, a distillery bottling, from 2006, at 46%, 2600 bottles in all. Edradour is a Highland single malt distilled in a pocket glen near Pitlochry since 1825. Its water comes from the Ben Vrackie springs in the hills above the distillery.

Made in the smallest of stills and condensed in worm tubs, for a full, oily make of dried fruit and chocolate. Finished in a Sauternes cask, the wood building over the oily, full bodied spirit. In these extractive early years the oak gives vanillin as vanilla and oak lactones as coconut over the rich, oily spirit. A small distillery and a hands on approach shape every cask by hand. The full bodied spirit shows the cask clearly, the sherry and oak to the fore. The tiny stills and worm tubs give an oily spirit that takes the cask well. The cool Highland air of the glen gives a slow, even maturation in the small Edradour warehouses.

At 46% it is rich, nutty and full. Dried fruit, chocolate and a nutty oil, with honeyed apricot and a candied citrus from the cask. Fig, nut and a creamy malt fill the middle. It finishes long, rich and oily. This is Edradour, one of Scotland's smallest distilleries.