Edradour Ballechin Batch 5

This official Ballechin, at 46%, 6000 bottles in all. Ballechin is the heavily peated single malt from Edradour, the tiny farm distillery at Pitlochry. It was bought in 2002 by Andrew Symington of the independent bottler Signatory Vintage.

It was drawn off the tiny stills and cooled in worm tubs, smoke over an oily spirit, giving a rich, peated Highland spirit. Finished in a Marsala cask, the wood building over the oily, full bodied spirit. Without an age statement, peat smoke leads, vanillin vanilla and a chocolate behind it. The cool Highland air of the glen gives a slow, even maturation in the small Edradour warehouses. Its water comes from the Ben Vrackie springs in the hills above the distillery. Years in oak round the spirit, the dried fruit and chocolate deepening over the oily core. Signatory's wide cask range gives the small distillery an unusual variety of finishes.

At 46% it is smooth and rich. Peat smoke, dried fruit and a nutty oil, with a raisined, herbal sweetness from the cask. The texture is oily and smoky, the fruit lifted by vanilla. The finish is rounded, smoky and gently spiced. This is a rich, smoky malt from one of Scotland's smallest distilleries.