Behold the other bottle I received as a gift this holiday season, this one from a very generous co-worker before he left town the week before Christmas.

I haven’t had Edradour in forever (on account of it being completely absent from the NC ABC system), so this one won’t stay unopened for too long. But for those unaware of Edradour’s story, it’s worth sharing.

Illegal/unlicensed distilling (i.e. moonshining) had been occurring at several small farmsteads near the modern distillery site since the 15th century, but Edradour was officially founded in 1825 when several small farm-distilleries threw in together following passage of the Excise Act in 1823. So Edradour was maybe a prototype of the farm-to-glass movement, and they certainly were doing it before it was cool.

The original distillery staff was three moonshiners-turned-legitimate, and this established Edradour’s most famous trait: at any given time, Edradour never has more than 3 distillery staff. Three dudes make everything, even now in Anno Domini 2021. An expansion several years ago tripled capacity, but prior to that Edradour made about 2-4 barrels of whisky weekly.

In 1933, William Whiteley purchased controlling share of Edradour. Whiteley made his fortune smuggling blending whiskey into New York for the Mafia during Prohibition, and Edradour was part of the legitimate face of the enterprise. After a period of decline in the 1970’s, Pernod Ricard purchased Edradour in 1982, and it mainly was charged with pumping out blending stock.

In 2002, Signatory, of the famous single cask NDP bottlings, bought Edradour outright. Since then Edradour produces the unpeated Edradour Single Malt, the peated Ballechin Single Malt, a whole mess of special runs/editions, and of course it serves as a reservoir for Signatory bottlings.

Edradour is kind of its own strange, beautiful thing. I’ve always found a distinct rye-like flair in their stuff I’ve had in the past, and between the whisky and story it’s always stood out among the Highland distilleries to me.

Image courtesy of Jon who also writes on Low Class & High Proof.

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