“This premium single malt Scotch whisky beautifully marries the wonder of peated and unpeated spirit, to produce a characterful and finely balanced expression of the rugged and yet romantic north west Highlands.”   We have been looking forward to this one for a while now. After hearing that the latest release from Bad na h-Achlaise was to be a Tuscan red wine finished, lightly peated, Highland malt we knew we would have to be quick off the mark. A small research dram confirmed that we had to get it on our shelves in Breakish. The short trip up to Badachro secured us a very limited number of bottles. We enjoyed meeting Gordon and Vanessa who are the owners of Badachro distillery. They met in the Badachro Inn over 20 years ago and always dreamed of moving there. A few years later their dream became a reality and it wasn’t long before they started distilling small batch spirits. We both left the distillery impressed by what they have managed to achieve in a relativly small space.   Here is what they say about the latest release from the Bad na h-Achlaise collection: Following an extraordinarily quick sell-out of our first and second releases, this is now the third release from the Bad na h-Achlaise collection and it is as  as it is as delicious as before. Available now! It is the result of having vatted two different and very carefully selected casks from a Highland distillery, to produce this lightly peated dram which has been finished in Tuscan red wine casks prior to bottling. It has developed a wonderfully deep character and slight blush in colour. It’s very North West Highland, in conversation with an old Tuscan friend. This premium single malt Scotch whisky beautifully marries the wonder of peated and unpeated spirit, to produce a characterful and finely balanced expression of the rugged and yet romantic north west Highlands. 46% ABV Nose: Smoke infused with lemongrass and fresh hay, subsiding to unveil ripe peach and candied apricots. Palate: Red berries sprinkled with a peppering of peat on the back of the tongue. Finish: ‘Highland Breakfast’ of warmed oats and pouring cream with pockets of fresh fruits. All enjoyed from an oak spoon. All together: Balanced, adventurous and four seasons in a dram.     We were also lucky enough to secure a few cask strength bottles. "Once the main bottling of our fine single malt whisky is complete, we keep the last few drops from the two chosen casks and bottle it uncut, at between 57.5% abv – 59% abv to date. Only twenty five to thirty bottles of this cask strength single malt are bottled from each release, so in addition to being very richly flavoured, strong in alcohol and unadulterated, they are also extremely rare. And as it seems such a cruel discipline to keep such fine whisky on the shelf without tasting it, every bottle comes with a 5cl partner bottle, so you can have a taste and enjoy the best of both worlds."     If either bottle sounds like something you, or someone you know might enjoy then you can either pop in to our shop in Breakish or order online for click & collect, local or UK wide postal delivery. If you are buying this as a Christmas gift to be delivered by post, we would suggest getting your order in as soon as possible as packages are taking a little longer than usual to work their way through the postal system at the moment. Sláinte!   Click here to buy now.