Ballechin 19 yo - Madeira Cask Matured

Volume: 0.7 litres | Alcohol content: 53.5% | Chill filtration: No | Colouring: No

Special Features:

This Ballechin brings powerful peat smoke together with the fruit character of full maturation in Madeira casks. Distilled in April 2004, the whisky spent 19 years in Madeira puncheons 184 and 189. It was bottled on 5 July 2023 as a small batch at cask strength of 53.5%, yielding 1,323 bottles. It is neither chill-filtered nor coloured and comes in a tube.

The long Madeira maturation gives the smoke a fruity, sweet counterpoint. Redcurrant, plum and sultana sit alongside brown sugar, with pepper and clove adding spice. Dark chocolate and oak complete the contrast.

Tasting Notes:

• Nose: On the nose, dried fruit and spicy clove mingle with dense smoke.
• Palate: On the palate, powerful peat smoke carries the sweetness of figs and marzipan, while a gentle oak note gives the flavours structure.
• Finish: The finish is long, with smoke and fruity notes lingering.

Distillery/Bottler:

Ballechin is the heavily peated single malt made by Edradour Distillery. Since 2003, the distillery has used peated malt with a phenol content of at least 50 ppm for this range and matured it in different types of cask. The name recalls a former Perthshire distillery that closed in 1927. Edradour bottled this Madeira small batch itself.

Edradour was founded in 1825 as a cooperative of local farmers. At this small Highland distillery, the mash is prepared in an open cast-iron mash tun, and the wort ferments in two Oregon-pine washbacks. Edradour distils twice in copper stills and uses water-cooled worm tubs.

Facts: