All about Edradour distillery

Edradour sits in the central Highlands, just southeast of the town of Pitlochry, and about a half mile from the Blair Athol Distillery, off of route A9 directly on the Edradour Burn.

In the valleys and glens around the Edradour site, there were illegal distillers still a plenty. But the "official" location was founded in 1825 by a collection of local farmers, who banded together to form Glenforres on the site. In 1834, they sought permission to build new structures to house their expanding operation.

Permission was granted, and James Scott and Duncan Stewart became the official "tenants" of the Distillery. The name Edradour becomes attached to the project. By 1839, production had grown to 90,000 imperial gallons per year.

The farmer-owners of the cooperative traded positions a few times, until James Reid -- another local farmer -- took over the entire operation and got to work. New partners and players entered the business, but it was never sold off to the corporate giants of the day -- remaining a small and independent operation.

In 1933, William Whitley -- who was a customer of the distillery to support his private label blend -- made an offer and purchased the distillery. Then, in 1982, they succumbed to the temptation and sold out to Campbell Distillers -- a subsidiary of giant Pernod Ricard.

But a few years later, Andrew Symington managed to convince Pernod Ricard to sell it to him, making it a small, privately held distillery once again.

For years, Edradour has called themselves "The Smallest Distillery in Scotland" and for years that was true. Now, the upstart Strathearn is a bit smaller, but the fact remains that this is a VERY low production facility. Only eighteen casks are produced each week.

This is where things really get crazy... they have thirty different varieties of Whisky for sale. There are different agings, wood finishes, cask strengths, and even a few heavily peated expressions, just to keep it interesting.

Also, everything is aged and bottled right there on sight. With such a wide variety of offerings and the incredibly low production, it can be very hard to find their products retail, but it can be done.