I visited
Edradour– which claims to be Scotland’s smallest distillery – this weekend. But forget the claims about size, Edradour is also home to the foulest whisky that I have ever tasted.
It’s not something that the marketing people would want you to know, but in the rush to cash in on malt whisky’s recent popularity as a luxury drink plenty of sub-standard product is being pushed our way. Sometimes this means whisky which was previously thought only fit for blending being pushed as a single malt. Increasingly common is the practice of producing premium-priced versions of malts – either at cask strength, or by maturing the spirit in an unusual cask.
I think that the success of Macallan probably started the trend off – how many sherry-casked whiskies are now on the market? But the trend has proliferated so that trying to buy any old brand means that you are confronted with a vast array of options for what the marketers call “trading up”.
This yields variable results – and some notable failures. One of these is
Edradour Tokaji finish. Tokaji is a sweet Hungarian wine – which should set alarm bells ringing immediately.
Now don’t get me wrong! Bog standard 10 year old Edradour is a very nice dram indeed, and the distillery runs a great free tour of their tiny premises. During the tour however our guide referred to the Tokaji finish which he said was horrible. Well we saw this as a challenge, and as soon as the Tour was over headed to the tasting bar and demanded 3 Tokaji bad boys.
To be fair the girl behind the bar tried to put us off – suggesting that we buy just one glass and try it before we committed to trying one each. But a challenge is a challenge, and this diversionary tactic just made us more eager to take this one on.
I’ve never been in a morgue, but I should imagine that the stench of this foul concoction is exactly what a rotting corpse would smell like. I decided that they only way to drink it was to knock it back, and the taste of wet dog hit the back of my throat and unfortunately stayed there for the rest of the day. My companions visibly gagged.
Ladies and Gentlemen, please visit the lovely Edradour but stay well clear of the
Tokaji finish – verifiably the Worst Whisky in the World!
