Edradour’s Unique Finishing: Ingelheimer Frühburgunder

Ernie – Ernst J. Scheiner, The Gateway to Distilleries at www.whisky-distilleries.net

The Perthshire distillery is known for its finishings in wine casks. Wine finishings are not always showing the results one really expects. However, Edradour’s recent bottlings from November 2012 are very remarkable indeed. They are excellent in their aromas and their taste.

Wine growers from Ingelheim sent French barriques to Edradour. Andrew Symington, owner and manager of the well visited distillery near Pitlochry, took advantage of the special German surprise offer. He knew the famous German wine growing region along the Rhine River as he had worked in the five-star hotel Nassauer Hof in Wiesbaden which is just fifteen miles from Ingelheim. Of course, the renowned red wine from Ingelheim was known to him.

In Ingelheim – a town which is strongly connected with Charlemagne – the red wine is made predominantly from Pinot noir grapes.  But there is also a special grape which is called in German Frühburgunder (literally translated „early Pinot noir“ or in French „Pinot noir précoce“). This commonly  and widely unknown grape is usually ripening a fortnight earlier than the traditional Pinot noir grapes.  Frühburgunder vineyards cover only 0,2% of the total area under vines cultivated in Germany.

This very rare wine can be desribed as very velvetly in texture with a deep red colour having strong aromas of blackcurrants and other dark fruit.

Klaus and Matthias Singer-Fischer – the latter is a whisky enthusiat himself – sent three traditional French barriques (two of 225 litres and one of 228 litres) to the Perthshire farm distillery. The casks came originally from the famous French cooperages  Vernou in Cognac and Francois Frères in Burgundy. They held for four years Frühburgunder and Pinot noir  from the renowned Ingelheim vineyard site Heilighäuschen. In September 2010 they were emptied and sent straight away – without any cleaning – to Edradour. Immediately after arrival Andrew Symington filled the barriques with an unpeated Edradour malt whisky which had previously matured for nine years in first-fill Bourbon casks. After 24 months of second maturation the whiskies were bottled in two versions,  two at natural cask strength and one reduced to 46% abv. It was Andrew Symington who decided upon the length of the second maturation.

The labels are absolutely unique in the Scottish whisky industry as they present the Scottish whisky maker and the German wine maker in a equal partnership.  The label on the back is written in English and in German to explain this very special partnership. The bottles are sold either at the distillery or at the German wine-growing estate. There, the each whisky will be accompanied by two bottles of red wine which had previously matured in the two barriques made of French oak and one of American oak.

Information about Edradour

Edradour is one of the smallest commercial distilleries in Scotland – the smallest, however, is Loch Ewe Distillery near Gairloch. It is the only surviving farm distillery in Perthshire and owned by the well-known independent bottler Andrew Symington. The idyllic picturesque setting is an ideal location where the King‘s Royal, a drama series of a Scottish distilling family was filmed. No wonder Edradour is well visited by coach parties passing the tourist hot spot Pitlochry in the Highlands.  Since 2002 the new owner has improved the site, renovated the buildings, built a new visitor centre and a new warehouse (2011).

Alfred Barnard toured the Scottish distilleries between 1885 and 1887. His description of 1887 is still true today: „The Distillery, which was built in 1837, is situated at the root of a steep hill on the road side, and consists of a few ancient buildings not unlike a farmstead, past which flows one of the most rampant and brawling streams in the district. On either side of this river, heather in rich abundance hangs from the banks and jutting corners of the rocks, and there is water power sufficient to drive several water-wheels. The works consist of a Barley Barn, Malting House, and Mill, all in one building. The Mash Tun has a capacity of 1,000 gallons, and there are four Washbacks holding the same quantity. The Still House is across the yard, and contains a Wash Still and a Low-wines Still, the farmer holding 740 and the latter 420 gallons, there are three Warehouses, a Spirit Store and small cask shed, and at the end of the yard a cart-shed, stable, and same outhouses.“ (Alfred Barnard. The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom. London, 1887.)

Edradour Malt in form of the Blended Whisky King‘s Ransom was also on its way to America on the famous S.S. Politician which sank off the shore of the Hebredian Isle of Eriskay in 1941. The film Whisky Galore made this historic event unforgetable.

The annual production is about 90.000 litres of spirit. Almost 95% goes into single malt bottling. Some casks are also warehoused at BenRiach Distillery, near Elgin. There is also a modern bottling hall.

Ballechin is the peated expression of Edradour, first produced by the then Distillery Manager Iain Henderson (formerly Manager of Laphroaig Distillery) in 2003.

The Edradour-Ingelheim-Wine-Finishings can obtained either at the

Wine-Growing Estate Singer-Fischer

www.singer-fischer.de, Telephone ++49 6132 944000

or at the

Edradour Distillery Shop

www.edradour.co.uk, Telephone: ++44 1796 472095

About the Author: Ernie – Ernst J. Scheiner M.A. was a director in an adult education centre. Ernie offers courses on whisky distilling, writes for newspapers and magazines in Germany.

He is the editor of The Gateway to Distilleries at www.whisky-distilleries.net

which gives an excellent photographic and educational insight into the whisky industry of Scotland, Ireland, Europe and Asia.  Photos copyright by Ernst J. Scheiner 2013.

Please see also: http://www.whisky-distillery.net/www.whisky-distilleries.net/Highland/Seiten/Edradour.html