Edradour Ballechin 2009 Cask #349

An official release of Ballechin, a 12 year old, from 2009, cask 349, at 55.4%, 628 bottles in all. Ballechin is Edradour's smoky single malt, peated to around fifty parts per million. The peated Ballechin lays heavy smoke over the rich, oily Edradour spirit.

The spirit was distilled slowly from peated malt in the old farm stillhouse, for the smoky, oily Ballechin make. Finished in an Oloroso cask, the wood building over the oily, full bodied spirit. Through integration spirit and wood marry, vanillin settling into vanilla as the peat smoke softens to a mellow, oily reek. A small distillery and a hands on approach shape every cask by hand. Active wood frames the rich fruit without overwhelming the oily Highland spirit. A rare Morton refrigerator still cools the wort, one of the last in use in Scotland. The cool Highland air of the glen gives a slow, even maturation in the small Edradour warehouses.

At cask strength 55.4% it is big and oily. Soft ash, dried fruit and a creamy malt, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. It is rich and smoky, the oily spirit shining through. The finish runs long, smoky and warming. This is the oily, smoky malt of Ballechin.