Ballechin (Edradour) 2005-2021 - 15 Year Old - Signatory Vintage - Cask Strength Collection - Single Cask 322

Edradour in the picturesque Highland town of Pitlochry is one of Scotland’s smallest and most charming whisky distilleries. Founded in 1825, the distillery was taken over in 1982 by Pernod Ricard, who sold Edradour to Andrew Symington’s Signatory Vintage in 2002. Symington wanted his own distillery to offset supply risks and give his company a source of new make spirit to trade with other distilleries.

Edradour distillery was truly tiny in 2002, with a production capacity of less than 100,000 litres per annum, but the success of the Symington era enabled expansion, with a second distillery opening onsite in 2018 and an increased capacity of around 250,000 litres per annum. Aside from the official 10-year-old and a new peated Edradour whisky named Ballechin, Symington has bottled hundreds of Edradour single cask whiskies from his inventory, the majority finished in different wine casks.

Signatory Vintage Whisky Company was founded by Andrew Symington in 1988 after a spell as assistant manager at the Prestonfield House Hotel, where he had the opportunity to buy a cask of Glenlivet 1968. A robust and canny businessman, Symington had soon acquired some outstanding parcels of casks from great distilleries, and quickly established a reputation among single malt fans for good value, high quality single casks, the majority of which were released at full strength.

Throughout the 1990s and beyond, Signatory released outstanding whisky from Ardbeg, Glenfarclas, Springbank and many more, with frequently remarkable examples of lost or obscure distilleries. Soon established as one of the leading new wave independent bottlers, Symington was also an early exponent of bottling whiskies without colouring or chill filtration, a policy that has also served Signatory well at their Edradour distillery, which was purchased in 2002.