Okay, having done a week of blended malts/whiskies from Compass Box (here, here and here), let’s do a week of single malts. This week’s whiskies are all from Edradour, they were all bottled for Spec’s in Texas, and they’re all wine casks of one kind or the other. Edradour—the tiny highlands distillery owned by Signatory—have a history of wine cask releases; both for the mainline malt, and for the peated variant, Ballechin. The base spirit is an idiosyncratic one and it’s probably fair to say that Edradour in general is more a cult distillery than a crowd-pleaser, and also that the cult is not very large. I myself have historically preferred the heavily peated stylings of the Ballechin variant to mainline Edradour—just as I prefer the heavily peated Ledaig to that distillery’s also idiosyncratic mainline malt, Tobermory. And whether it’s Ledaig/Tobermory or Ballechin/Edradour, I generally prefer sherry casks to ex-bourbon. Well, none of this week’s casks of Edradour for Spec’s are sherry casks. First up, is a chardonnay cask. It was bottled at an eye-watering strength; which is, I suppose, another hallmark of the distillery’s single cask program. Anyway, let’s see what it’s like.

Edradour 10, 2011, Chardonnay Cask (60%; for Spec’s; cask 400; from a bottle split)

Name: That nutty, beany Edradour note off the top, overlaid with roasted malt; sweet grapey notes swirl around it. On the second and third sniffs the roasted malt is dominant and the grape note picks up a fair bit of yeasty sourness. As it sits a fair bit of salt emerges and then the sulphur shows up here as well. Not too much change here with water; if anything, the sulphur expands at first; with more time it calms down and lets sweeter notes out.

Palate: Comes in with the same mix of malt (less roasted here), nuts and (soy) beans; the wine is not quite as expressive here at first. More approachable than expected at full strength; decent texture. As it sits it picks up some acrid notes: yes, it’s sulphur. And, alas, it keeps expanding. Okay, let’s see if water fixes it. Well, it doesn’t fix it but it does mitigate it somewhat: less acrid now and some citrus emerges.

Finish: Long. The oak emerges here, turning more sour and tannic as it goes. And the sulphur hangs out here as well once it makes its presence known on the palate. As on the palate with water.

Comments: Did someone at Spec’s actually pick this cask or was it just made available to them by the distillery? If it was a true pick does that mean Spec’s customer base is not sulphur-averse? Though you might actually have to be actively pro-sulphur to like this one a lot. I’m not the most sulphur-averse whisky drinker but this was right on the border of too much for me. Much better with water.

Rating: 81 points. (Pulled up by water.)