Edradour 10, Revisited

Edradour Distillery

The Scotch Couples have a very dear colleague in London who has advanced their single malt education immeasurably. Although he has a penchant for mediocre American Bourbon from his time working as a roadie for the Doobie Brothers, and has thus earned the name Maker's Mark Man, this Gentleman knows his single malt whiskys. Moreover, he is both generous in his knowledge and his time. He once drove the CA Scotch Couple all the way from London up to and around the Highlands for a weekend to introduce them to the wonders of whisky. Part of this tour included a stop at Edradour, the smallest distillery in Scotland. 

Edradour is a very beautiful distillery, but, alas, in the opinion of the Scotch Chix, this beauty does not extend to its drams. With the heady rush of actually touring the operation, however, the CA Scotch Couple thought that the Edradour 10 was "interesting" tasting, and brought back a bottle for themselves and for the DC Scotch Couple. They soon discovered that "interesting" does not necessarily equate to "good." 

In full disclosure it has been three years since either DC Scotch Chick or CA Scotch Chick tasted Edradour 10. And even then it wasn't an official tasting. It didn't need to be because we could sum up the experience as 'medicinal', not because it tasted like medicine, but because it fit the category of 'I have a cold and need to get to sleep so give me a shot of ANYTHING medicine.' Even then we pitied the poor sod who was that bad off.

But the other night Maker's Mark Man came to DC and, perhaps for sentimental reasons, brought along a bottle and invited DC Scotch Gent to share. Always the trooper, DC Scotch Gent offered up his palate in the name of science. Thanks for volunteering to do our dirty work! To the surprise of the Scotch Chix, he said it was better than he remembered. So when Maker's Mark Man sent home the remainder of the (seriously depleted) bottle, DC Scotch Chick was ready to sample.

Well all DC Scotch Chick can say is that one whiff of this stuff was enough to know that she would rather remain parched. The nose evoked images of dirty gym socks and musty, rotted wood.

Alas, the taste followed the nose. Plastic and pepper were the primary impressions of the palate, and no, DC Scotch Chick was not willing to sample again in the name of single malt science for a more accurate description. She did save the remainder of the bottle for CA Scotch Chick to taste during her July 4th visit. Sacrifices must be made for our Loyal Scotch Chix Fans, and if DC Scotch Chick has to suffer, CA Scotch Chick should not get off the hook.

The Scotch Chix are now a bit concerned about DC Scotch Gent's palate, however. DC Scotch Chick recommends that he submit himself to Remedial Scotch Chix Training. CA Scotch Chick suggests that as step one of the training, we make him take a blind taste test and if he fails, he will be in for a little Scotch Chix Discipline – force him to drink the bad stuff until he recants. Harsh? Like we said, we are no sh*^ chicks!