Edradour 2009 12 years Cask #13

Ibisco bottle release - 56.5%

Edradour. The masters of darkness. Producers of liquids so dark, Sith Lords shudder. Some describe their single casks as bottles of turbo-sherry. Some love them, Some hate them. Either way, when Edradour produces dark, sherried whiskies, they don't faff about.

I've had a love-hate relationship with this distillery in the past. I found many of their whiskies were quite soapy, with notes of "acrid things" and mushrooms. I've given bottles away. I've even thrown some down the sink. But lately, my opinion of them has been completely turned around. It started with a sample of a single cask release from Billy Abbott at The Whisky Exchange, then another sample from a fellow drinker..... and then this one. It's a bottle that I grabbed from Royal Mile Whiskies when I was actually in Pitlochry back in August. For those that don't know, Pitlochry is actually where the Edradour distillery is based. It was closed when I was there, which was a shame as it's in such a lovely setting.

This particular bottle is from a range of, quite frankly, beautiful Ibisco decanter-style bottles that Edradour is releasing at the moment.

They look more like bottles of Aceto balsamico di Modena. Or an oil change.

Appearance: Molasses, engine oil change. – almost completely solid in its colour, thin, oily legs.

Nose: Sneakily subdued at first, with a minimal aroma coming out of the glass. Then they start to creep out very slowly… Sticky raisins and PX sherry, blackcurrant jelly sweets, over-ripe black cherries, oak, ground white pepper.

Palate: Sweetness intermingles with some dryness. There’s a big sherry body with some black cherry, stewed stone fruit & raisins. Drying oak and a little ground white pepper follow.

Finish: Long, with a sweetness that slowly subsides and quickly dries off to more of a Liquorice Allsorts note. It leaves quite an oily coating in the mouth. The liquorice now transforms to more of a dried liquorice root on the tongue and stays there for a very, very long time.

Conclusion: Big. It’s got some traits that I remember picking up in a SMWS Yamazaki release (119.14), and I love this. It’s big and rich and quite frankly, a stonker of a bottle - and it will certainly not be discarded or frowned upon. Bravo bravo bravo Edradour!

This particular bottle release was purchased from Royal Mile Whiskies. However, other Ibisco Edradour releases are appearing at other retailers such as Abbey Whisky and Tyndrum Whisky.