The Edradour Story

Edradour is the smallest whisky distillery in Scotland, nestled in a pocket glen in the hills above Pitlochry; possibly the smallest legal distillery of any kind in the World. John Reid and his two assistants hand-craft Edradour without automation, using skills handed down through generations. For centuries the people of Edradour and other remote regions enjoyed malt whisky making as a natural by-product of farming life. The natural
ingredients of barley, pure water,
and peat have been available in Scotland
in abundance since time immemorial.

At a weekly output of a mere 600 gallons - enough to fill twelve casks - what Edradour makes in a year, a typical Speyside distillery would produce in a week. Only the finest spirit is laid down by John into hand-selected oak casks for the ten year long wait before it can take the name of Edradour. During the aging process the whisky is regularly monitored with the same hand care and attention that it took to produce it.

It is a small wonder, then, that Edradour can be a little hard to track down, making Edradour single malt a rare pleasure for a fortunate few. If you manage to find it, you will be one of the few people lucky enough to experience its charm!

"In its earlier life Edradour had a fairly colorful history, and much of its production was alleged to have ended up in the USA by various means during the prohibition era of the 1920s. It has also been alleged that during this period the distillery was briefly and indirectly owned by the Mafia. Whatever the truth of this, the US market remained an important one for Edradour.

One result of this was that when the cargo ship the SS Politician struck rocks just off the north shore of Eriskay in the Western Isles on 5 February 1941, en route to New York, a significant proportion of the content of the 264,000 bottles of Scotch whisky in its hold was produced at Edradour. As soon as the crew were safe, the islanders set to work saving the cargo. It is thought that over 2,000 cases or 24,000 bottles were liberated before the authorities arrived on the scene. In the aftermath, police and customs officers searched the entire island and several islanders were actually jailed for theft, not something advertised in Compton Mackenzie's best selling 1946 novel Whisky Galore based on the story of the SS Politician, or the film it spawned."

-- Undiscovered Scotland: The Ultimate Online Guide
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