Edradour 10yo 200th Anniversary
Official new bottling | 46% ABV
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
Worth saving; every whisky cabinet should have a bottle of Edradour
Defeating Injustices
While I would never class myself as a thrill-seeker, I do like to be challenged.
Well, having said that, when things become difficult frustrations do get the better of me. That’s human nature, I guess.
I’m not overly blessed when it comes to cerebral matters. I like to think I am, and then I meet people who make me go ‘Wow!’, and then I get imposter syndrome.
Sad to say, that happens a lot. My track record with challenges isn’t great either - I quit my first ever job on the first day, a paper-round. I was maybe ten years old at the time, but a really young ten; more like eight or nine. I had been given fairly mediocre instructions on where exactly my route was (my memory is hazy, but I think I was given a faded, hand-drawn, laminated map of the village I lived in – remember I’m 10, I’d hardly driven around the place learning the street names). Anyway, long story short, I got in a complete mess, delivered a bunch of papers to the wrong address and fled the scene.
I didn’t hold down a regular job for another seven or eight years – to be expected whilst in full-time education, perhaps. But it was an indication that, in the fight-or-flight scenario, I lean towards the flight side of things. I think, and I’m not a psychologist, that those who lean towards fleeing over fighting are also those who despise injustice. I was thinking about this the other day because of an injustice and I’ll explain why in a bit. One episode in my youth really stands out though. Venturing out near where I lived into a city called St Albans (now one of the most desirable cities to live in England, but then somewhere to avoid – which I almost always did) on a night out with my brother and a friend, a fight ensued. Now, I say fight, but what I mean is, someone sucker-punched my brother, two others cornered my friend and someone else, appearing out of nowhere, decided that they would attempt to drag me to the floor by my jacket. You know the type this person is; small, ineffectual, strangely angry about nothing and determined to egg you into violence.
As this fracas was outside of the pub, and about five yards away from two rather burly Bobbies (Police Officers), I appealed for them to do something about the urchin trying to tear my jacket off my back. Their response was one that, clearly, has never left me:
“What? And arrest both of you?”
The injustice of it! I was the innocent party – guilty only of being in the wrong place, at the wrong time. My crime was simply wanting to go out for a drink with my brother and a friend. The police, paid to protect and serve the public, would rather I smash the little punk in the head to remove him from my person, thereby giving them a solid reason to arrest me for GBH. Of course, I’ve already explained that I would rather flee than fracas, so I managed to untangle myself from the little hooligan and got the next train home.
And so, to my latest injustice: I am taking a rather expensive course in further education. For reasons known only to the course convenors and Mephistopheles, the review assignment for the course was set halfway through rather than at the end. Now, I know what you’re immediately thinking: ‘How are you supposed to complete a review assignment when you’ve only gone through half the course?’ You’re right to ask this, as that is exactly what I asked – but to no avail nor explanation. Further, having completed the task and to the best of my ability, I learned that there was an extension available for the deadline, AND those who applied for the extension were privy to additional feedback and tuition on the assignment!
‘The injustice!’ I hear you all cry. I know, right?
Review
Edradour 10yo, Official 200th Anniversary bottling, 2025 release, full maturation in oloroso sherry casks, 46% ABV
£45 paid & wide availability
So why am I telling you this? Well, that’s a good question, and I haven’t really got a good answer. I guess it’s because we don’t live in a fair world; injustice is all around us. I mean, I keep hearing of people buying Springbank 15 year old – I haven’t seen one on a shelf for I don’t know how long. It’s also an injustice that some of my favourite malts are not portrayed in their best light by their owners (I’d say you know who you are, but I think, in reality, they don’t). You just got to take all of this on the chin and carry on. Next assignment, next project, next malt, next thing. As Red says in Shawshank Redemption: ‘Get busy living or get busy dying’. I’m far too old to spend my time complaining about injustices in a short piece for a whisky-themed blog… ahem!
Anyway, injustices make me crave a dram - and this bottle of Edradour 10 year old has been staring at me for a few days. Just the sound of the cork releasing from the bottle has eased my tension…
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
Worth saving; every whisky cabinet should have a bottle of Edradour
Nose
I love this nose. It’s rich plums, cherries, prunes, oak, sweet tannins, dark chocolate, hints of malt, dunnage warehouse, treacle, and fudge. It’s got haybarn aspects – slightly farmyard, but not at all in a bad way. There’s Kirsch (cherry schnapps), touches of Amaro, brandy snaps, and musk. I could go on, but it is an inviting nose – it says ‘drink me’. So I will.
Palate
It’s not bursting with sweetness like contemporary Sherry bombs, and what is immediately evident is that the additional percentage of alcohol (and lack of additional filtering?) has added power and weight to the previous iteration. This is not a fruit bomb, but it is full-bodied and without a single negative aspect: it’s not bitter, not over-sherried, not over-oaked, not too sweet and not just a mouthful of raisin juice. Instead, it is a refined palate, balanced and very, very moreish.
The Dregs
I vividly remember the news about Signatory buying Edradour. The common response around the industry was ‘Has Andrew (Symington) gone mad?’
The truth is, Edradour whisky was rotten. It was a bottle full of sherried soap. At times bearable, other times pure torture. You bought a bottle for these reasons, and these reasons only; you’d never heard of it, never tasted it, heard of it - but couldn’t believe it was that bad, or went momentarily blind whilst buying a bottle of whisky.
The soapy, baby-sick note wasn’t a quick fix either. Stocks take time to build up; weeding out the bad batches of casks took patience and no little business acumen. And in the end, all those, myself included, who felt Andrew had maybe lost the plot, were silenced when hard work, perseverance and time, brought forward a whisky that is now well and truly beloved.
I think the real key to what I’ve just said is the ‘hard work’ part, and perhaps that is how Andrew should and will be considered and remembered for. Buying Edradour Distillery wasn’t through any element of luck, and it certainly wasn’t plain sailing.
The dram in my glass is evidence of Passion and Perseverance – two of the three great P’s of the whisky industry (the other naturally being People) that make a great product. It would have been a huge injustice if Andrew had not been able to turn around the style of Edradour. But then, despite what I and many others in the industry thought, Andrew knew a bit more than we did, and worked like a trooper until he was happy with the finished article.
Cheers to the Godfather of Independent Bottlers and the Saviour of Edradour.
Score: 8/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. FF
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