Edradour Ballechin 2008 Vintage Cask #186

A 10 year old Ballechin, a distillery bottling, from 2008, cask 186, at 60%, 703 bottles in all. Ballechin is Edradour's heavily peated malt, smoke laid over a rich, oily Highland spirit. It keeps the old ways, with an open cast iron mash tun, Oregon pine washbacks and worm tub condensers.

Drawn off the tiny stills and cooled in worm tubs, smoke over an oily spirit, for the smoky, oily Ballechin make. Finished in an Oloroso cask, the wood building over the oily, full bodied spirit. By the integrating teens congeners fade and esters build, the smoke knitting with the rich, oily spirit. Maturation in the dunnage warehouses at Pitlochry is slow and steady. The tiny stills and worm tubs give an oily spirit that takes the cask well. Its tiny copper stills and worm tubs give a rich, oily, full bodied spirit. Ballechin was first distilled in 2003, the malt peated to around fifty parts per million.

At a natural 60% it is full and oily. Peat smoke, dried fruit and a nutty oil, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. A baked apple and a peppery smoke lift it. The close is oily and smoky, fruit over a tarry oak. This is Ballechin's heavily peated, oily style.