Signatory Edradour 1998

It's fair to say the whisky from Edradour is of variable quality and often its buyer beware. This still applies today with the most notable feature being the soapy characteristic that you sometimes taste. Generally the advice is stick to ex-bourbon or sherry casks and tread very carefully when wine casks or their ilk are being used.

There are few distilleries that can rival Edradour for its wonderful setting and distillery buildings. This is very much a quaint farm distillery that whilst only a few miles from the bustle of Pitlochry is hidden away in a glen that harks back to the days of illicit distilleries.

Today the distillery is owned by Andrew Symington who also owns the impressive Signatory independent bottling company. He had the foresight to start purchasing casks years before the current whisky boom. If you're visiting Edradour then not only will you see a fantastic range of Signatory bottlings in the distillery shop, but on the tour you'll enter a warehouse just over the hill. It's here you'll see what a fantastic array of casks from all over Scotland.

Distillery: Edradour
Distilled: 12th August 1998
Bottled: 23rd September 2008 (10 years old)
Outturn: 909 bottles
Additional: cask 279, natural colour, unchill filtered
Price: £33 

Colour: Werther's originals

Nose: shortbread, currants, oranges, short pastry with sage and dark mint chocolate notes.

Taste: cereals, more pine and oranges. Butterscotch and a light toffee shine through alongside a caramel wafter. A leathery quality persits alongside melted butter that persits into the finish.

Funny as if you had asked me upon my original tasting of this dram I would have stated how water and devoid of character it was on the palate. A little time in the bottle and glass to open up and hey presto! It's night and day with some real flavours forcing their way through. I really enjoyed this one and no soapy characteristics that ruin some Edradour whiskies.