Edradour Ballechin Batch 4

An official release of Ballechin, at 46%, 6000 bottles in all. Ballechin is a heavily peated Highland single malt made at Edradour near Pitlochry. It was bought in 2002 by Andrew Symington of the independent bottler Signatory Vintage.

Distilled from heavily peated malt in tiny copper stills and worm tubs, building the rich, peated Ballechin style. Finished in an Oloroso cask, the wood building over the oily, full bodied spirit. No age is given, but the smoke and a vanillin vanilla are well integrated over an oily body. The worm tubs leave an oily weight that carries through the years in cask. The cool Highland air of the glen gives a slow, even maturation in the small Edradour warehouses. A 2018 expansion added a second still house, the production still small and traditional. It once supplied blends such as House of Lords and King's Ransom. The distillery sits in a pocket glen at Balnauld, in the hills above Pitlochry in Perthshire.

Bottled at 46%, it is rounded. 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. It finishes long, rich and smoky. This is Ballechin, Edradour's peated single malt.