Edradour Caledonia 12-year-old is bottled at 46% ABV. It is a single malt that spends around 8 years in ex-bourbon casks before spending its remaining time maturing in ex-Oloroso sherry casks. This sells for around $75-100. I am reviewing the 2020 bottling. I rarely mention the color of a whisky, because I usually don’t care, but this bottle has the words “natural colour” on it, and it is the color of an old Macallan 18. It even has some of that legendary aroma: figs, sultanas, and coffee - quintessential old school sherry up the wazoo. And then there’s some malt, oak, and alcohol nip, reminding you that there’s some whisky in this sherry. The amount of sherry influence on the nose and opening of this whisky is stupid. Stupid in its sheer amplitude, and stupidly enjoyable. Bravo, for making me feel like a desperately single 45-year-old British woman haunting the classier university pubs. But, it’s not quite Macallan 18. The sweet dark fruits dissipate, and the ending has harshness and bitterness; salty dark chocolate, if I’m being optimistic, but an alcohol-soaked burnt sugar bit of flotsam, if I’m being real. Boo, for making me feel like a desperately single 45-year-old pirate with scurvy and a wooden leg. Overall, this is not bad, and Edradour deserves to be able to charge a few more dollars above the typical 12-year-old single malt price curve because this is a fairly memorable experience. It’s like they poured a nice sherry into a whisky. This is a mixed drink. The sherry obliterates any notion of an ex-bourbon matured whisky at the beginning, and then a rather average and young tasting whisky emerges to reclaim this mix in the end.