Edradour Distillery: History, Owner and Visitor Guide
Updated: 2 hours ago
Edradour is a Highland single malt distillery in Pitlochry, Perthshire, long billed as Scotland's smallest traditional distillery. Its name is usually translated from the Gaelic as between two rivers. Since 2002 it has belonged to the independent bottler Signatory Vintage, and it also makes the peated Ballechin.
In this guide
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Edradour at a glance
Distillery fact | Verified detail |
|---|---|
Distillery / brand | Edradour |
Whisky region | Highland, Scotland |
Ownership (October 2026) | Signatory Vintage |
History | 1825 is the distillery's founding date; some accounts cite 1837 for the present site. |
Expressions to explore | Edradour 10 Year Old and Ballechin 10 Year Old |
Visiting / editorial note | The distillery's website says it is closed to the public until further notice, including tours, the shop and the tasting bar, because of staff shortages. |
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Where is Edradour distillery?
Edradour Distillery, Pitlochry, Perthshire, PH16 5JP. ScotchWhisky.com classes it as Highland single malt. The distillery says it sits in the heart of Perthshire in a little model village of whitewashed farm buildings.
Edradour history
The start date depends on the source. The distillery and The Single Cask date it to 1825, when a group of local farmers pooled their barley and stills. ScotchWhisky.com says production at the current site began in 1837, though farmer Duncan Forbes had been distilling legally nearby since 1825. Perthshire's hidden glens and back roads made it prime country for illicit distilling, so Forbes may well have known the craft before going legal.
ScotchWhisky.com lists John MacGlashan and local farmers from 1837, John MacGlashan and Co from 1841, James Reid and Co from 1860 and John McIntosh and Co from 1886. The Mackintosh family sold to the blenders William Whiteley and Co in 1933.
ScotchWhisky.com tells a colourful story here. Whiteley built a strong US business during Prohibition with its King's Ransom blend, and appointed Frank Costello as sales representative. About five years later Costello's associate Irving Haim became Edradour's owner, an arrangement that lasted until Haim's death in 1976.
In 1982 Campbell Distillers, a Pernod Ricard subsidiary, bought the run-down distillery and opened it to visitors. Edradour first appeared as a single malt in 1986. In 2002 Pernod Ricard sold it to Andrew Symington's Signatory Vintage. ScotchWhisky.com gives the price as £5.4 million, while The Single Cask says a little over £3 million, so the figure is not settled.
Under Signatory the distillery added warehousing for the company's own casks, a bottling line and a tasting room. Peated experiments began in 2003, and the first peated Ballechin came out in 2006. Ballechin is named for a distillery that once stood nearby and closed in 1927. Ballechin 10 Year Old followed in 2014. According to The Single Cask a second distillery, Edradour II, was built alongside the original in 2017 and 2018.
Who owns Edradour?
Signatory Vintage Scotch Whisky Company has owned Edradour since 2002. Signatory is an independent bottler founded in 1988 by Andrew Symington. ScotchWhisky.com lists the Edradour Distillery Company as the operating owner.
How Edradour makes its whisky
Mash tun: a one tonne, open-topped, rake and plough mash tun.
Cooling: the wort is cooled in a replica of an old Morton's refrigerator.
Fermentation: wooden washbacks. The Single Cask gives 48 to 96 hours.
Stills: very small, with a wash still of about 4,200 litres and a spirit still of about 2,200 litres (The Single Cask), leading into worm tubs.
Peated spirit: Ballechin uses malt peated to around 50ppm, run on separate days (The Single Cask).
Wood: ScotchWhisky.com says ex-sherry casks have been preferred since the Signatory takeover, with many fortified and still wine casks used for finishing. Ballechin is mainly in ex-bourbon.
Capacity: historically under 100,000 litres a year. The Single Cask quotes around 400,000 litres combined after Edradour II.
The Edradour range
The distillery says it offers over 25 expressions. Its shop groups them as follows.
Classic Range
Cask Strength
Wine Finished
Wine Matured
Ballechin, the peated range
ABVs for individual bottlings were not available from a source that loaded, so they are not listed here.
Edradour and independent bottlers
Signatory bottles Edradour and Ballechin extensively under its own labels. The Single Cask found no sign of third-party independent releases in recent years and has never bottled an Edradour cask.
Visiting Edradour
The distillery's website says it is closed to the public until further notice, including tours, the shop and the tasting bar, because of staff shortages. The Single Cask says the closure has run since 2025. ScotchWhisky.com lists older hours of 10am to 5pm Monday to Saturday, April to October. Check with the distillery before travelling.
Official website
Sources and image credit
Not confirmed: current ABVs, the Signatory purchase price and reopening plans.
Cover image: Wikimedia Commons.
Edradour bottle range and expression comparison
Bottle / expression | Age | ABV | Documented producer expression |
|---|---|---|---|
Edradour 10 Year Old | Check label | Check label | Documented expression; batch and availability vary |
Edradour Caledonia 12 Year Old | Check label | Check label | Documented expression; batch and availability vary |
Ballechin 10 Year Old | Check label | Check label | Documented expression; batch and availability vary |
Ballechin 18 Year Old Cask Strength Batch 2 | Check label | Check label | Documented expression; batch and availability vary |
Producer and release sources document these expressions. Historical bottles may be out of production or unavailable. Bottled sourced or blended whiskey is not always entirely distilled at this site.
Bottle releases and visitor arrangements change over time; see original research and official sources.
More whisky distilleries to explore
Frequently asked questions about Edradour
Where is Edradour?
In Pitlochry, Perthshire.
Who owns Edradour?
Signatory Vintage Scotch Whisky Company, since 2002.
When was Edradour founded?
1825 per the distillery and The Single Cask. ScotchWhisky.com dates production at the current site to 1837.
What does Edradour mean?
Between two rivers, from the Gaelic.
What is Ballechin?
The peated malt made at Edradour, first released in 2006 and named after a nearby distillery that closed in 1927.
Sources and latest checks
Whisky Clan has retained the original researched history and source notes above. The comparison table lists documented expressions, not guaranteed current stock. Please check the producer's current bottle labels for strength, cask details and availability.
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Whisky producer and release source: https://edradour.com/shop
About the author
 | Filip Janczak Storyteller, drinker and explorer of all things whisky. Read more about the person behind Whisky Clan and explore additional reviews and distillery guides. |
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