When in Scotland? I am not a whiskey drinker. I have tried a few sips of other people’s whiskey at one point or another and thought that it tasted like bad medicine, so I was surprised to find that I kind of liked a few of the whiskeys at Edradour Distillery, near Blair Castle, in Pitlochry. Edradour’s main claim to fame is that it is Scotland’s smallest distillery. All of the machinery is run by hand, as it has been for 150 years. They only produce 12 casks of single malt whiskey a week, which is less than most places, and then the whiskey must age in the cask before it is bottled and sold. Unlike wine, whiskey does not continue to age once it is bottled. It only ages in the casks. At Edradour, many of the casks are aged 10 years before they are sold.

Andrew, who runs the distillery, showed me around and talked about how whiskey is made before we had a tasting. I didn’t know that whiskey had so many flavors. It can be aged in different wooden casks, giving it a unique taste. For instance, I tried a whiskey that had been aged in a sherry cask and was good. I also liked the whiskey that had been aged in an old cask that once held spiced rum. All of the whiskey’s that I sampled cleared my sinuses. I didn’t like the peaty tasting whiskey’s, which are apparently popular now. Andrew said that a lot of people come to the distillery thinking that they don’t like whiskey, but when they try the different flavors, find that they do have some that they like.

I purchased some items as gifts, including whiskey jam, just because it was so unique and is a good gift item that I can easily shove in my suitcase.

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