Edradour. Twenty-seven whiskies.

Edradour sits in a cluster of whitewashed farm buildings just outside Pitlochry. It began in 1825 as a cooperative of local farmers, shortly after the Excise Act made legal distilling possible, and remained virtually unchanged for almost two centuries: small stills, wooden washbacks and worm tubs for cooling.

For years the sign at the entrance said ‘Scotland’s smallest distillery’. Since micro-distilleries such as Daftmill have been added and its own capacity doubled in 2018, that is no longer true; the sign now says ‘Scotland’s little gem’.

The turning point was 2002. Andrew Symington, founder of bottler Signatory, bought the distillery and brought his own way of working: endless experimenting with casks. Burgundy, Sauternes, Amarone, Pinot Noir: everything has been tried here. A year later came Ballechin, the heavily peated counterpart, named after a vanished distillery from the region.

In summer more than a hundred thousand visitors come. More people then work in the visitor centre than in production.