Ballechin 2012 (Signatory)

From the Pitlochry bottler Signatory Vintage, a 12 year old Ballechin, distilled in 2012, from cask 536, bottled at 57.3%, one of 637 bottles. Ballechin is the heavily peated single malt from Edradour, the tiny farm distillery at Pitlochry. A 2018 expansion added a second still house, the production still small and traditional.

The spirit was worked through worm tubs from heavily peated malt for a smoky, oily spirit, the worm tubs lending weight to the smoke. Finished in an Oloroso 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. A small distillery and a hands on approach shape every cask by hand. 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.

At its natural 57.3% it is rich and full bodied. Soft ash, dried fruit and a creamy malt, with dried fruit, fig and walnut 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 a rich, smoky Highland single malt.