Edradour The Fairy Flag 15 Years Old 46 NV

Professional reviews

Serge Valentin (86)

A bizarre label, but it takes all sorts to make a world, doesn’t it.

Colour: deep gold.

Nose: leather, chocolate, tobacco, and saltpetre, this is a nice start. Goes on with a newly opened pack of cigarettes (soon banned everywhere!) and a little camphor (tiger balm), then rather Seville oranges and some kind of sooty earth, gravel, flints… And let’s not forget our beloved walnuts!

Mouth: unusual and excellent. Turmeric, celery, pink grapefruits, chocolate, blackberries, raisins, more tobacco… It’s rather singular (they say idiosyncratic in good circles, don’t they) but that’s totally and asset, while it was an obvious flaw in the old Pernod bottle.

Finish: long, with chestnuts, leather, and cracked pepper. Not a common combination, but indeed it works.

Comments: a dry, unusual style that really works. Excellent characterful malt, while character is not exactly what many other distilleries seem to be seeking these days. And yet, yes it’s probably ‘older’ distillate by the former owners, as Signatory started distilling in 2002 if I’m not mistaken. Go figure…