Not so far from Dufftown in the heart of Speyside in the whiskyens the mecca of The Balvenie. One of the few distilleries which still have malting integrated in the production. In addition, a impressive process to follow, where, with his own eyes see, how the grain in the germination produces enzymes which increases the sugar content and thus makes it possible to create alcohol. And how to drying of grain work with more or less use of peat. And the barley you get from the own fields close to the distillery, even though the majority, however, still finished malt supplied from the outside.
The Balvenie is one of the Grant-the family’s three distilleries and was founded in 1892. In early 1892 work began to convert a mansion from the 18. century (Balvenie New House) into a distillery. The building took fifteen months to complete, and the 1. may 1893 found the first distillation taking place at The Balvenie Distillery.
the Responsibility for whiskyerne is put in the hand on Kelsey McKechnie, who has partly taken over from the legendary David Stewart. David Stewart is born on the scottish west coast in 1945 and started his career with William Grant & Sons in 1962, the year before Single Malt Scotch Whisky was officially exported to England. He was appointed Malt Master in 1974, and his unparalleled ability to select the finest barrels for the maturation of whisky has helped William Grant & Sons for the price as Distillery of the Year no less than eight times (2010, 2009, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2001, 2000 and 1999). David Steward celebrated its 50th anniversary at the distillery in september 2012. Kelsey McKechnie has also received assistance from Brian Kinsman, as is the Malt Master at Glenfiddich and now work closely with David Stewart for the term to be able to take over at The Balvenie as Malt Master.
the Visit to The Balvenie takes almost five hours, but then one comes also around the whole of the malting process, the fermentation, distillation and see how you work with dishes in the bødkeriet. And the trips through the halls with their dishes, where you put a patch forward and can taste fadprøver from various new and older vintages as well as various casks is definitely an experience, which is far from the standardized turistversion, as you often encounter.
And just the feeling of seeing the traditional craft with lots of subtleties is one of the things you settle on with the classic distillery.
today, the house is especially known for its excellent malt, in which a smaller part is dried with peat, which gives the characteristic smoked style. In addition, private bødkeri, where to recycle casks previously used for sherry, port, rum and madeira production.
the Style is very full-bodied and aromatic. You get the feeling that their dishes means a lot to the style, and experiment a lot with toast-the degree and different types of used casks.
You can visit The Balvenie this year around either in the morning or in the afternoon. You must, however, book time, and the price for a visit is £35.
Last year introduced a new series, The Balvenie Stories. The series consists of three variants, The Sweet Toast of the American Oak 12 years, A Week of Peat 14-year and A Day of Dark Barley 26-years. Whisky distilleries are built on stories, which is the distillery lifeblood. Stories are over a century passed from generation to generation in all layers of the distillery. And in an industry where almost everything is systematized, written there is not much down. Instead passed the vast knowledge from person to person, story to story and is indispensable in relation to the production of exactly that expression, a distillery want. This has The Balvenie addressed in the case of the new series, where the new “Master of Malt”-apprentice, Kelsey McKechnie, has put its first imprint on the whisky from the Balvenie. She is intended to fill the large shoes after the MBE David Stewart, whiskyverdenens perhaps the largest capacity, when he finally retires.
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