The Balvenie

United Kingdom

All about The Balvenie

The Balvenie has a very wide range of single malt offerings that span the categories of ages and wood finishes. All of them are "sweet" Whiskies in the Speyside tradition.

They tend to be rich and flavor-dense with light fruit notes of apple, pear, and lemon zest. There is also the pronounced taste and aroma of fresh vanilla bean that just jumps right out at you. You will not even find a hint of smoke beacsue that's just not the way that they roll at The Balvenie. The finish tends to be medium-long with a lingering "carrot-spice-cake" note that stays with you.

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All about The Balvenie distillery

The Balvenie is located in Dufftown, in the middle of the Speyside region. No fewer than six major active distilleries call this place home, making Dufftown one of the most Whisky-centric towns in the world.

William Grant is one the most well-known names in Scotch. After working in the trade at Mortlach Distillery for twenty years, he founded his first distillery of his own -- The Balvenie -- in 1892. The distillery is still owned by the company that bears his name.

There are several things that make Balvenie special, not the least of which, is that they have their own farm on which 1000 acres of barley are grown exclusively for use in their spirit. They also have their own malting floor, cooperage coppersmith and aging on site.

This is one of the main reasons that Whisky-lovers world-wide consider them to be a throw back to a baygone era. It retains a unique character from all of these elements, in a age of robust mechanization, automation, and industrialization.

That said, we need to note that with 5 wash and 6 spirit stills running every day of the week, two elements of production have been outstripped -- they simply do not have the capacity to malt or store enough of their production on site. So some malting and storage services need to be contracted outside the property.

That strategic outsourcing has helped them up capacity to a staggering 5.6 million liters per year. How much is that? Imagine the center court at Wimbeldon in London flooded to a depth of more than 70 feet... that's how much.

Distillery info

  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Region: Speyside
  • Address: Balvenie Distillery, Duff Town, Dufftown, AB55 4BB, United Kingdom
  • Phone: 01340 822210
  • Website: https://www.thebalvenie.com/