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The Balvenie

The Balvenie produces quality, award-winning single malt whisky from their distillery in Speyside. Their extensive and exclusive collection is a series of collectibles for the avid collector – but the novice equally has good reason to explore in The Balvenie’s impressive ranges of first-class single malt. Balvenie whiskies belong on your shelf, in your globe bar or wherever you may keep your whiskies – for every collector Balvenie is essential.

Research completed by YouGov in 2019 shows that the most used terms by fans to describe The Balvenie are: Good Quality, Well Made, Traditional, Beautiful and Impressive – these are indeed incredibly telling terms, which every single Balvenie bottling lives up to.

Characterised by quality, uniqueness & innovation

Single malt whisky from The Balvenie Distillery is usually known by its smooth richness and by a telltale honeyed character. Each barrel has been made with great care and consideration, everything is for a reason, and there is a 120+ long history of accumulated knowledge and experience, which are passed down generation by generation.

Having been established in 1892 by William Grant The Balvenie is one of the leading distillers of Scotch whisky, and for decades the distillery has been made recognizable because of its pioneering Malt Master: David C. Stewart.

Stewart has been in charge of every launch since his appointment to Malt Master in 1974, and it’s by his volition that the distillery can lay claim to a collection of variations of production methods. The collection offers both batch whisky as well as long-matured whisky (the oldest being the iconic The Balvenie Fifty), and The Balvenie was also one of the first to introduce double barrelling in their maturation process.

The Balvenie collection is divided into five ranges:

  • The Core Range
  • The Stories Range
  • The Crafts Range
  • The Travel Retail Range
  • The D.C.S Compendium

An incredibly important aspect for The Balvenie is their insistence of employing the Five Rare Crafts in their production process. The Five Rare Crafts process is a unique identifier to The Balvenie, as they are the only Scotch distiller who insists on such a hands-on production.

Five Rare Crafts & The Importance of Storytelling

The Balvenie is keen to appraise its history and the valuable accrued experience, as they know how much their whiskies benefit from the expertise. Craftsmanship is held in incredibly high regard and is considered the very lifeblood of the distillery – for this reason, The Balvenie relies on the Five Rare Crafts with great insistence. Relying on the stories told from generations before has been the building blocks: Storytelling is how knowledge is passed on, how new experiences are processed and also how new ideas are created within The Balvenie.

The Five Rare Crafts is a term of describing an entirely on-site production, and the term refers to the following:

  • The fact they grow, harvest and malt their barley
  • The fact they have floor maltings (as one of the few within Scotland)
  • The fact they make their copper stills
  • The fact they have their cooperage

And then the fifth element:

  • Their Malt Master, David C. Stewart

For managing each craft the distillery has employed the best of the best craftsmen, and together the crafts give cause to an extraordinarily high level of expertise, skill as well as ambition. This, of course, has a great effect on their unique, brand-characteristic single malts.

The History

William Grant (1839-1923) established the distillery in 1892, and the company is to this day family-owned William Grant & Sons Ltd., now run by descendants.

The distillery has its name from a castle near to the distillery’s location in Dufftown – which is where William Grant was born. Balvenie is a classic Speyside-distiller of single malt, however, the years have turned The Balvenie into a very distinctive Scotch distiller.

In its newer history, Malt Master David C. Stewart is the defining factor. He joined the distillery in 1962 at the tender age of 17, and in 1974 he was made the fourth Malt Master in Balvenie’s history. On an international scale, David is known and appraised for his innovative techniques, and in 2016 Her Majesty the Queen rewarded his work with an MBE.

David developed a maturing-technique now referred to as ‘finishing’, which entails double-maturing in first traditional American Oak (former Bourbon casks) and secondly in European Oak (former Sherry, Madeira, Port, and Rum). This pioneering method of maturing has caught on and become a quite popular way of giving a collection a twist and some character.

In 1987 was behind the release of the first version of Fifty, which also marked one of the first released of such an old whisky. Since then several versions of Fifty’s have been launched – the 2018-release yielded an exclusive and limited 110 bottles. Its retail price was set to £27,500 (or $38,000), which naturally caused much attention, however, it’s also very indicative of The Balvenie’s astonishing quality.

A Look Into The Balvenie Collection

The Balvenie produces 5,600,000 liters of whisky annually, which is a great feat considering a lot of their assortment consists of small batch or limited editions. The Balvenie is owned by William Grant & Sons Ltd., who has an approximate 10.4 % market share, and they are thus the third-largest producer of Scotch whisky. In 2018 The Balvenie was named the sixth best seller of single malt whisky after having sold 335,500 cases – this was, by the way, an 11.2 % increase from the previous year.

Throughout the years the distillery has garnered much industry appraisal in the form of favorable reviews and in competition and challenges awards. When taking a gander through the remarkable range it becomes very clear why that’s so.

The Range

The Balvenie has an extensive archive of former releases, but currently, the collection’s range is parted in five categories.

The Core Range consists of six whiskies all of which have been matured twice in different casks, which naturally infers the unique taste of each of the whiskies. This range is a nod to Malt Master David C. Stewart’s innovative exploration of double-maturing going back to 1983, as such The Core Range is a great indicator of The Balvenie’s identity. The DoubleWood 12 is one of the most reviewed of Balvenie’s whiskies – it’s aged 12 years in an ex-Bourbon cask and then in ex-Oloroso cask for another nine months, giving the whisky a distinct nose and taste of sherry.

With The Stories Range The Balvenie embody their respect for the generational storytelling within the distillery. Each whisky is a representation of the endeavor, character and craft that goes before every bit of production. The fact each whisky tells a story is for instance showcased with The Week of Peat, which was developed on the back of distillery manager Ian Millar’s visit to Islay: This trip sparked the idea to experiment with Speyside peat. The distillery now purpose-makes a peated malt batch for a week a year, and the whisky offers a delicate layer of smokiness and is rich on notes of honey, vanilla and citrus.

Eight single barrel and small-batch whiskies currently make out The Crafts Range, as such the range’s assortment varies from whichever batch is still in stock. Single Barrel 25 is a 25-year-old whisky matured in traditional American oak: Each barrel causes a distinct taste for the corresponding batch, as a barrel is unique and not identical to any other. Single Barrel 25 yields 300 bottles from each barrel, making each batch limited and exclusive.

Tun 1509 represents an entirely different method: 42 casks (35 American, 7 Sherry) are handpicked and then transferred into Tun 1509 for some time before bottling. This last step in maturation is a ‘marrying process’, allowing the 42 casks to unify in a very unique expression.

The Travel Retail Range is an outlier in that its whiskies are only available at travel retail locations, albeit worldwide. The range introduces a 21-year-old Madeira Cask, but also an evolution: Triple casked whiskies. Triple Cask 16 is the result of a combination of whisky from three different casks, namely: the first-fill bourbon, refill bourbon and then a sherry. The three whiskies are combined in a marrying tun, and being an evolution this release is, of course, a product of a recipe developed and refined throughout experimental time. A factor of success has naturally been to capture the distinctive Balvenie style: smooth richness and the honeyed characteristic.

The fifth range isn’t as much a range as it’s a celebration of Malt Master David C. Stewart’s groundbreaking work. The D.C.S Compendium is a five-chapter release, and each chapter consists of five single cask, vintage whiskies relating to the chapter’s theme. So far (September 2019) four of the chapters have been released, which are:

  • Chapter One: Distillery Style
  • Chapter Two: The Influence of Oak
  • Chapter Three: Secrets of The Stock Model
  • Chapter Four: Expecting the Unexpected

With this compendium, David hands over his knowledge and experience, and David’s achievements and vital contributions to the craft of single malt whisky production are beautifully captured within the releases.

This is only touching the surface of The Balvenie’s wide-ranging, exclusive collection, and it’s most recommended to explore the collection further – a good place to do so is here.