Edradour Ballechin Batch 3

This official Ballechin, at 46%, 6000 bottles in all. Ballechin is Edradour's smoky single malt, peated to around fifty parts per million. Ballechin was first distilled in 2003, the malt peated to around fifty parts per million.

Distilled from heavily peated malt in tiny copper stills and worm tubs, building the rich, peated Ballechin style. Maturation came in a Port cask, layered over the rich Edradour make. Without an age statement, peat smoke leads, vanillin vanilla and a chocolate behind it. The worm tubs leave an oily weight that carries through the years in cask. The distillery sits in a pocket glen at Balnauld, in the hills above Pitlochry in Perthshire. Its water comes from the Ben Vrackie springs in the hills above the distillery. Under Signatory the range has grown to a wide run of sherry and wine cask bottlings.

Reduced to 46%, it is mellow. Woodsmoke, oily malt and a dried fruit, with red berry, plum and a dry spice from the cask. A dried fruit and a tarry oak give it depth. The close is oily and smoky, fruit over a tarry oak. This is a rich, smoky malt from one of Scotland's smallest distilleries.