Ballechin 15 Year Old Huelva Orange Wine Cask 54.1%
We start with a bottling that spent its last 26 months in Huelva orange wine casks from Spain. The casks are sweetened with orange peel from the Spanish Seville orange, in case that is of interest. You certainly sense a sweet aroma when you bring the glass to the nose. Lightly sweet orange, vanilla, undertones of malt and very little peat.
The palate is powerful and intense with the 54.1% nipping away nicely. There is no mistaking the sweetness from the cask, because it settles on the tongue afterwards. The peat is well restrained and I am actually surprised here. The sweetness is not intense but does make the whisky lovely and fruity in the mouth. These are not sherry casks, but this orange cask really does give the whisky a good balance. A lovely, good bottling that still offers a bit of bite.
Ballechin 18 Year Old Batch 2 57.8%
This 18 year old has had the pleasure of a mix of bourbon casks and sherry casks, the thoroughly classic combination we know from virtually everything Edradour makes. Expectations here are enormous, let us just say that.
There is not much to fault on the nose. We all know it, that good sherry aroma breaking through the nose and simply giving the impression that there are treats ahead for the palate. But I really have to nose the glass for a long time, because where the devil has my peat gone. Edradour themselves write Heavily Peated and that is something of a puzzle to me here. I think the 18 years in the cask have dampened the nose considerably.
The palate is simply really lovely and balanced. Good flavour from the sherry cask and very much as we know Edradour, and 18 years at that, what's not to like. You can sense a little peat, but it will not scare anyone off.
The 18 year old Edradour is a good whisky, though I am more of a fan of the 15 year old orange bottling, because it offers something new and
lovely.
Ballechin 20 Year Old First Fill Port 54.7%
Now it is first fill port, and let me start somewhere else here.
I think everyone goes through a phase in their whisky journey, and at one point I fell into the port trap. I started with Talisker Port Ruighe and after that it all had to be port cask, right up until you hit a wall and find the phase over. Here I am with a Ballechin in port casks, and 20 years old at that, so I sit with a certain scepticism about what to make of this one.
The nose does not disappoint and it is the dark berry aroma that breaks through. Lightly peated, dried fruit, a complex fruit nose.
The palate is intense with peat, spiced here with a dark fruit note. It is sharp and complex and invites your taste buds to be indulged several times over. This whisky I could become a fan of, because it absolutely delivers some lovely notes of good whisky in port casks. It is not dry and by no means lazy on the palate, so you can sit for a long while and chew on it a bit.
Conclusion
I ought to be a little ashamed, because good grief have I missed out on good whisky from Edradour.
There are good flavour notes and a lovely age statement on these bottlings, which absolutely makes them worth looking out for. Heavily peated is an exaggeration, though, and that really has to be taken with a pinch of salt, because you do not get run over by peat the way you do with bottlings from Ardbeg, Big Peat or Kilchoman. Yes, they are peated, but not in a way that scares anyone. Edradour Ballechin is simply cracking good whisky, full stop.
