Edradour Ballechin 2004 Cask #278

Ballechin from the distillery, a 12 year old, from 2004, cask 278, at 55.6%, 495 bottles in all. Ballechin is the heavily peated single malt from Edradour, the tiny farm distillery at Pitlochry. The peated Ballechin lays heavy smoke over the rich, oily Edradour spirit.

Made from malt peated to around fifty parts per million in the tiny stills, for a smoky, oily make of peat and dried fruit. Finished in a Manzanilla cask, the wood building over the oily, full bodied spirit. In integration lactones (coconut) and vanillin (vanilla) join the smoke, the dried fruit deepening beneath. Vanillin and oak lactones from the wood lend vanilla and coconut over the fruit. The full bodied spirit shows the cask clearly, the sherry and oak to the fore. The distillery sits in a pocket glen at Balnauld, in the hills above Pitlochry in Perthshire. Maturation in the dunnage warehouses at Pitlochry is slow and steady.

At a natural 55.6% it is full and oily. Peat smoke, dried fruit and a nutty oil, with a dry, saline, almond note from the cask. Peat, fig and a creamy malt fill the middle. Peat smoke, dried fruit and a soft oak see out a long finish. This is the oily, smoky malt of Ballechin.