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As far as I know it, the distinctive character of The Balvenie all began in 1892, when William Grant built his distillery in the 'new' Balvenie Castle (constructed in 1724 for the first Earl of Fife). It's located in the region of Speyside on the lower slopes of the Convals, the hills which dominate Dufftown. It's a lovely area, a few steps from the old ruins of the Balvenie Castle, which date back to the 13th century.
Legend has it that William Grant was an extraordinary man with great ambition. He started his career as a herd-boy, then became a clerk in a distillery, where he learned everything about distilling fine single malts. Even with a wife and ten children he managed to save enough money to build his own distillery.
Grant was apparently quite strict and exacting when it came to the business. At the same time, he was a paragon of consideration – always whistling loudly when he walked around the grounds, particularly when approaching a warehouse where he might have stumbled upon a worker helping himself to an odd dram from the copious reserves.
The distillery has an ambience probably not so different than when William Grant turned his first 200 hundred bushels of malt into 435 gallons of The Balvenie. It draws its water from the Robbie Dubh (pronounced doo) spring and is one of the last Speyside distilleries that still grows its own barley, still malts in its own traditional floor maltings, and still has its own coppersmiths to look after the wear and tear on the eight copper stills and pipework.
Visit the Balvenie website.
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All sizes are 750mL unless otherwise noted.
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