The Balvenie Distillery

The Balvenie’s story

Balvenie is one of the most famous names in the world of Scotch single malt whisky. It is a large distillery capable of producing around seven million litres of spirit a year and is often described as ‘the complete distillery’. This is due to the fact that every process of production takes place on the site including barley grown on land adjoining the distillery buildings (one of only a handful of distilleries in Scotland to do this), having an active malting floor and making casks in their own cooperage.

Balvenie has been one of the world’s best selling Scotch single malt whiskies for a number of years and regularly features in the Top 10. It consistently sells approximately four million bottles each year.

The Balvenie’s history

The Balvenie was established in 1892 by William Grant. He built a new distillery in order to help his other distillery at Glenfiddich meet consumer demand. Glenfiddich had opened six years earlier and its whisky was proving extremely popular. Grant decided to renovate nearby Balvenie House and its outbuildings, converting them to a distillery. He bought and installed equipment that was deemed surplus the Lagavulin and Glen Albyn distilleries from Islay and Inverness respectively.

Balvenie’s success was almost instantaneous, following on from Glenfiddich’s impressive start. Most of the whisky produced there was put towards Grant & Sons range of blended whiskies, especially Grant’s which has been one of the UK’s and world’s top selling blends for many decades. Regular single malt releases only really became common in the 1970s, with the inaugural release appearing in 1973, and the reputation of its sweet, creamy, rich whisky grew rapidly. This popularity led William Grant & Sons to build another distillery next door and Kininvie started production in 1990. Kininvie was built solely to take the weight off Balvenie and Glenfiddich and everything produced there goes towards the Grant’s and Monkey Shoulder blended ranges.

Balvenie and Glenfiddich now primarily concerntrate on meeting demand for their single malts, with only a small percentage now going to Grant’s and Monkey Shoulder. This is also aided by the Lowland distillery of Ailsa Bay that the company constructed in 2007 – this large distillery in the Ayrshire town of Girvan can make several styles of single malt including peated spirit. Balvenie remains under the ownership of the Grant family, making William Grant & Sons one of the longest single family ownerships in the world.

• How to pronounce Balvenie? bal-ven-nee
• Country: Scotland
• Region: Speyside
• Founded: 1892
• Current owners: William Grant & Sons
• Production capacity per year: 7 million litres
• Mash tun: 11.8 ton
• Washbacks: 14
• Stills: 11
• Visitor centre: Yes – appointment only

The Balvenie Distillery
Dufftown
Banffshire
AB55 4DH
tel – +44(0)1340 820 373
www.balvenie.com

Did you know?

Close to Balvenie is the local Nairn Golf Course – this has the highest altitude golf hole in the UK at over 1000 feet (305 metres) above sea level.