Edradour Ballechin 2009, 10 years old, Straight from the Cask (Oloroso Sherry) /58,8%/ – The Ballechin brand is homage to the distillery operating in the neighborhood of Edradour Distillery and closed in 1927. Soon after Andrew Symington acquired Edradour he started distilling peated whisky (50ppm phenols in malt), which he launched in 2006 as Ballechin. Today Ballechin whisky is part of the Edradour core range and is supplemented with limited releases on annual basis. Ballechin Straight from the Cask in an example of the latter. The whisky distilled on October 16, 2009 was aged in ex-Oloroso sherry butt no. 342 for over 10 years. Bottled ‘straight from the cask’ unchill-filtered and at natural strength of 58.8% abv on September 11, 2020 with an outrun of 939 bottles.
Nose: peat smoke and dried fruits, prunes, cherries, raisins, lapsang souchong tea, caramel, cocoa powder, hints of Maggi seasoning and licorice.
Palate: dark chocolate, raisins, espresso, mixed berries marmalade, salted caramel, licorice, nutmeg, dash of pepper and whiffs of peat smoke.
Finish: fairly long and smoky, with notes of dried berries, cocoa, nutmeg, sherried oak and a trace of cigar ash.
