Ballechin Double Malt – Double Cask (LMDW)

This Ballechin was bottled by the Paris house La Maison du Whisky, bottled at 46%, one of 1700 bottles. Ballechin is the peated expression of Edradour, named after a long lost peated farm distillery nearby. Its water comes from the Ben Vrackie springs in the hills above the distillery.

It was distilled slowly from peated malt in the old farm stillhouse, for the smoky, oily Ballechin make. An Oloroso cask held it, shaping the oily spirit over the years. No age is given, but the smoke and a vanillin vanilla are well integrated over an oily body. Signatory's wide cask range gives the small distillery an unusual variety of finishes. It was founded in 1825, growing out of an old farmers' cooperative in the glen above Pitlochry. The tiny stills and worm tubs give an oily spirit that takes the cask well. Maturation in the dunnage warehouses at Pitlochry is slow and steady.

At 46% it is smooth and rich. A rich smoke over dried fruit and chocolate, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Peat, fig and a creamy malt fill the middle. The close is oily and smoky, fruit over a tarry oak. This is a peated Highland single malt of real weight.