Location and contact details
Location: Edfardour Distillery, Pitlochry, Perth and Kinross, PH16 5JP
Visit Type: Vistor Centre
Co-ordinates: 56.701409, -3.702082
Email: tours[at]edradour.com
Web: https://www.edradour.com/ 
Twitter: Edradour Whisky (@edradourmalt)Facts and figures
| Location | Perthshire |
| Founded | 1825 |
| Owner | Signatory Vintage Scotch Whisky Company |
| Water Source | Ben Vrackie Springs |
| Stills | 1 wash still (4,200 litres) 1 spirit still (2,200 litres) |
Opening Hours
Check for details of opening hours before visiting, but Edradour, between April and October, is typically open between 1000 and 1700 Monday to Saturday.
Tours
Guided Tour
£12
You will be welcomed with two drams of Edradour in the old Malt Barn. Your Guide will introduce you to the Distillery and the art and craft of the whisky maker. You will then be guided around the working Distillery to see the traditional methods of whisky making and maturation, hand-crafted today as it was in Victorian times.
After sampling the drams, you get to keep one of the glasses.
Review: Guided Tour (19:11 on 23/09/2019)
Price: £12
Edradour do not allow you to book a tour in advance. Fortunately, it is only a couple of miles from the main road and easy to reach.
As I usually do, I asked a like early and waited for them to open. Slight worry when a coach lead arrives, but when we got into the distillery and paid for the tour, the coach load was sent in a different tour.
Edradour tours can be quite large, but this time there was only 14. Our tour guide was Ian and has a very theatrical presentation style. That said, it was not too over the top and added some amusing parts to the tour.
I've felt sometimes in previous visits that the structure of the tour was a bit lacking, but didn't feel that this time.
You start with a tasting of two drinks where you can choose bergen the following three:
- Edradour 10 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky
- Edradour Cream Liqueur
- Ballechin Single Malt Scotch Whisky
You also get to keep your Glencairn tasting glass; the down side is you only get a thin particular bag to hold it in. As you then go through the distillery on the tour I'm always a bit surprised that there were no breakages. Knowing this was all you got to carry your glass in, I came prepared with a beanie in my pocket to wrap it in.
The tour took us through the distillery two building which was only built 18 months ago. Instead of being an old building with small rooms, it is one large purpose built room. I think this contributed to the tour feeling more structured as the whole group easily fit in. In distillery one, there were often to many people to fit. The only difference in content, was in distillery two you don't get to see the worm tubs.
I spoke to one of the shop staff and once the refurbishment of the old distillery is complete, she thinks the normal touchs will return to distillery one and coach trips will visit distillery two. Therefore this may have been my only chance to see distillery two.
Either before or after your tour, you can buy a mug of tea or coffee and keep the Edradour mug it comes in; at only £2.50 a mug, definitely worth buying one.
History
Edradour distillery (Scottish Gaelic: Eadar Dhà Dhobhar, "between two rivers") is a Highland single malt whisky distillery based in Pitlochry, Perthshire. Its owners claim it to be the smallest distillery in Scotland, but this title now belongs to Strathearn Distillery, also in Perthshire. It has been owned by the Signatory Vintage Scotch Whisky Company since 2002, and was previously owned by Pernod Ricard. Signatory, founded in 1988, is primarily an Independent bottler and is based in Pitlochry.
Established in 1825, the distillery was traditionally run by three men, but now there are just two who produce only eighteen casks each week.
The wash still has a capacity of 4200 litres and the smaller spirit still 2200 litres. Originally Edradour billed themselves as having the smallest stills in Scotland, but the newer Strathearn Distillery stills are a quarter of the size.
A variety of whiskies are available from the distillery, but only the Edradour 10-year is chill-filtered, a process by which the esters and oils are removed, producing a cleaner look to the whisky, which when chilled or has ice added to it does not turn cloudy. There is, amongst others, a non-chill-filtered 12-year-old malt, some of which goes into the "House of Lords" and "Clan Campbell" blends.
Also produced for two days in a week is a heavily-peated version of the Edradour called Ballechin.
