Ballechin 2007 (Signatory)

A 13 year old Ballechin from the Pitlochry bottler Signatory Vintage, distilled in 2007, from cask 170, bottled at 58.8%, one of 697 bottles. Ballechin is the smoky side of Edradour, a heavily peated malt from Pitlochry. Under Signatory the range has grown to a wide run of sherry and wine cask bottlings.

Drawn off the tiny stills and cooled in worm tubs, smoke over an oily spirit, the worm tubs lending weight to the smoke. It was matured in an Oloroso cask, the wood working slowly into the rich malt. Integration folds eugenol (clove) and vanillin (vanilla) into the smoky malt, the body fuller and oilier. A gentle maturation suits the oily make, the nutty richness growing with time. Years in oak round the spirit, the dried fruit and chocolate deepening over the oily core. Ballechin was first distilled in 2003, the malt peated to around fifty parts per million.

At cask strength 58.8% it is big and oily. Soft ash, dried fruit and a creamy malt, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Beneath the smoke run dried fruit, chocolate and a soft oil. Peat smoke, dried fruit and a soft oak see out a long finish. This is a peated Highland single malt of real weight.