Tasting Notes: Ballechin: 10 Year

Ballechin: 10 Year (Scottish Highland Single Malt Whisky: 10 year: 46% ABV)

Visual: Deep gold.

Viscosity: Very slow, thin streaks.

Nose: Massive peat and beef broth. Grassy. Beef crisps. Slight alcohol, but mainly smooth. Water adds a slight menthol character.

Body: Sweet apricot front. Light granite and alcohol. Intense smoke. Peaty beef. Short lived toffee. Lime syrup. Brown bread. Caramel and treacle. Water makes smoother and grassier. Fruitcake. More water adds apples, slight creamy character and dried apricot.

Finish: Barbecued charred beef. Smoke and peat. Lightly grassy. Caramelized brown sugar and malted drinks. Light custard. Water adds cherry and black cherries. Orange crème. Caramel. Chocolate liqueur.

Conclusion: Well, this really is different to Edradour, which you may feel goes without saying, but even for a peated expression this felt different. Question is, is it any good?

Well, intense peat booms out from the front – beefy, smoky, you know the drill by now. Not much else at this point – none of the Islay harshess that peat often calls to mind, and the native Highland sweetness is well hidden. There is a slight grassy character, Springbank style, but otherwise you just get the peat ascendant here.

There is a sweet front when you sip, but it is rapidly punched down by the peat. In fact, let’s skip ahead a bit – basically all I was going to say for the experience without water is peat and beef – simple, ok, but very one note. Let’s get past all that and get some water play going already.

Now the goof old Edradour character I know comes out – there is still booming peat, but now matched by a lightly creamy and very fresh fruit whisky underneath. In fact even some of the caramel sweetness starts coming out to play. More recognisable as a cousin to Edradour and much better for it.

Lots of fresh apples and cream, drying smoke and peat – the sweetness is more treacle and caramel with lots of dark touches. Even with water there is some prickly alcohol though. It feels pretty unbalanced – the flavours aren’t well matched, but it is an interesting experience. It feels like an attempt to shove all the whisky regions into one – grass from Campbeltown, Islay peat, Highland sweetness and Speyside fruitiness. Island and lowland, erm, ok, I can’t think of any for them, but run with me on this one ok?

I can’t say I would recommend it as it is too all over the place, but it is not bad. However we seem to have a renaissance of peated, sweet and light whisky going on right now and there are many that play the game far better. Ok, but with nothing to call its unique element.

Background: Doing a lot of the peated variants on distilleries whisky at the moment it seems. This is a peated take on the Edradour whisky which I grabbed from The Whisky Exchange. Thought it was worth grabbing a bunch of miniatures while I ordered a normal sized bottle . Not much more to add. Drunk while listening to Against Me!’s live album.

Tasting Notes: Edradour: Straight From The Cask: Port Cask Finish

Edradour: Straight From The Cask: Port Cask Finish (Scottish Highland Single Malt Whisky: 12 Year: 56.1% ABV)

Visual: Rose wine touched gold.

Viscosity: Slow thick streaks.

Nose: Cherries. Marzipan and fruitcake. Rose wine. Vanilla toffee. Water makes more floral. Soft peach skin. Cake sponge and almonds.

Body: Floral. Apricot. Rose wine. Cherries. Alcohol very noticeable. Heather. Light lime touch. Much sweeter with water. Also peaches, custard and much less noticeable alcohol

Finish: Light oak. Drying alcohol. Heather. Rose wine. Menthol. Malt drinks. Water adds peach and makes for more menthol. More chocolate, fresh mint and almonds also comes out.

Conclusion: Hmm, what to say? Well the colour is lovely, like rose wine touched whisky. There is something so very aesthetically pleasing about port finished whisky. Secondly, this needs water. It is pretty much the poster child for whisky that needs water. The cask strength neat will numb your tongue in seconds.

So the whisky then. A veritable cornucopia of influences. Rose wine in body and finish, but with that apricot and peach fruitiness, heather and floral backing. In the aroma it wears the influence of cherries, marzipan and fruitcake that are much more Christmas cake like that the light fruits you find in the body below.

The floral elements are mostly hidden I will admit, secondary below the sweetness, and there is a final flourish with menthol freshness to the finish, so many elements pulling so many ways. That menthol finish is a bit of a weak point to me, all the elements before that were very different but never felt disparate like the menthol does.

This difference of elements is why it is hard to sum up, there are lots of good and some great element, but not much ties into a coherent whole. I shall say I will concentrate on the body, the wine and peach apricot mix seems to best encapsulate the whisky. Therefore it is strong, heavy and wide in range. Holds better in quality in individual elements than a whole but still far from bad and often very enjoyable.

Background: It seems Brewdog Bristol is rotating the whisky selection nicely, after the chardonnay cask finish they brought this port finish in. I still haven’t reviewed the basic Edradour expression yet, I really should get on that. Anyway I generally enjoy port finished whisky and the from the cask selection has been nice so far so I decided to relax through a Saturdays drinking with a measure of this.

Tasting Notes: Edradour: Straight From The Cask: Chardonnay Cask

Edradour: Straight From The Cask: Chardonnay Cask (Scotland: Highland Single Malt Whisky: 12 Year: 56.1% ABV)

Visual: Ripe banana hued gold.

Viscosity: Very slow thick puckering into streaks.

Nose: Key lime. Banana skin. Honey soaked barley. White grapes. Noticeable alcohol. Overripe fruit sweetness. Vinous. Becomes muted with water. Dry passion fruit, cheesecake and husked wheat.

Body: Ripe banana. Grapes. Sweet. Alcohol burn level is quite high. Sweet lime. Crumble topping. Honeycomb and treacle. Water makes golden syrup like with still present elements of grapes and banana.

Finish: Crumble toppings. Banoffee pie. Grapes. Dry at the end. Honey into treacle. Feels more alcohol like after water oddly. Alcohol then fades with a little more water. The flavour with water is white wine, lots of grapes and wheat fields.

Conclusion: Big is not a word I previously associated with Edradour, but this is big. It is partly the alcohol, with noticeable alcohol burn it would be hard not to comment on that element, but more than that it is the thick texture and strong banana and treacle flavours.

Even a decent amount of water finds it hard to dent it, it more has the effect of drying the flavours rather than lessening them. Water drying the flavours, yeah that still sounds odd. It is remarkably robust.  The wine cask influence only actually seems wine like with water though, dry and sparkling. Before you add the water it is very full, like rich fruity grapes.

The whisky is full of character and ripe with potential room to play, almost overripe and laden with opportunity.  It shows how you can bring this level of weight without going the Islay route, and without sacrificing the sweet and fruity character.  Now you need a bit of play with water to get it just right, and you need to be able to put up with the strength of alcohol to get anything out of it, but if you’re up for that is shows a good use of both unusual cask ageing and cask strength.

Well worth checking out.

Background: 2000 Vintage. Drunk at Brewdog Bristol. Yes I’m doing whisky reviews there now. It is like they are trying to steal all my money by stocking things I enjoy. Anyway, with one thing or another it has been a while since I did a whisky review. Good to be back in the saddle. Edradour is the distillery I only nearly visited. Certain mistakes in navigation resulted in us turning up after the last tour. Ahh well, we only hit another ten distilleries that week, so we didn’t suffer too much.  This, finished in Chardonnay barrels and at cask strength has been of interest to me for a while, but I wasn’t quite willing to grab a full bottle on a whim. A chance to try by the measure on the other hand…

Tasting Notes: Edradour: Caledonia Selection 12 Year

Edradour: Caledonia Selection 12 Year (Scottish Highland Single Malt Whisky: 12 Years Old: 46% ABV)

(Note according to Whisky Exchange, this was taken from a single Oloroso Cask)

Visual: Deep bronzed honeyed amber, darker than its years suggest.

Viscosity: Several quite fast streaks.

Nose: Sherry, raisins, oak, toffee. Distinct alcohol. Roasted oats. Water lightens to floral notes, gingerbread and slight lemon.

Body: Thick, dark chocolate, raspberry, orange peel and vanilla. Water leads to loads more raspberries, caramel. Spicy alcohol soaked fruit. Apricot. Golden syrup. Milky frothy chocolate mutates out from the initial bitter core.

Finish: Dark chocolate gateaux, charring, apricots. Roasted nuts, stout, cocoa. With water adds raspberry and raisins. Still distinct chocolate.

Conclusion Quite the versatile beast, dark and chocolate laden when taken neat, with a finish reminiscent of a chocolate stout. Water brings out lovely fruit and berries without compromising the core. A very dessert whisky, for luxurious and slow drinking.

In my eyes it’s a significant difference and improvement upon the standard Edradour. Well worth trying with a range of different amounts of water added, as whilst flavoursome, the initial alcohol burn is very prominent. Also the spicy fruits that get added to the chocolate with water gives it significantly more lifespan as a drink.

A highly recommended wonderful dessert whisky.