Single Malt Whiskey, Scotland / Highlands
Whether it is aged in second or first fill bourbon casks, in a cask that has contained a manzanilla or whether it is matured in rum casks, Ballechin asserts itself, year after year, as a magnificent peaty single malt. Aged in a barrel that had contained a red wine from Burgundy, this version does much more than contribute to a building whose first stone was laid in 2002. To such an extent that by itself, the aromatic palette is already a true delight as each note perceived rings true. And what about the taste palette if not that it is overflowing with naturalness, that its lyricism is based on a goldsmith precision and that its complexity is matched only by its desire for simplicity and obviousness.
TASTING NOTE
Colour: Orange copper.
Nose: Deep, rich. First, a balsamic (thuja, cedar) and vinous (straw wine) peat gives the nose a great deal of charm. Oxidative therefore, it becomes more and more fatty and oily. Very suggestive, the aromatic palette evokes a field of peat dripping after the rain. Gradually, the marvellously smooth, fruity (apricot) and floral (rose petal, peony) distillate of Ballechin bursts into light. Beautiful.
Taste: Saline and medicinal gue (arnica). Continuing the work of dehydration undertaken, soot and ashes now occupy the foreground of the taste palette. The feeling of smoking a cigar is not just an illusion.
Overall: Long, tasty. With a wonderful chocolate bitterness, the start of the finish is also herbaceous (gentian, agave) and gourmet (rum baba, coconut cake). At the very end of the palate, the peat not only became oily (smoked fish) but also animal (bresaola, bacon). In retro-olfaction, a very tasty and crunchy malted barley leads us to a malting area. The empty glass is marked by notes of creosote, truffle and artichoke base.