Balvenie

The Balvenie Distillery was built in 1892 and 1893 by William Grant & Sons beneath their Glenfiddich distillery in Dufftown. Balvenie still grows it’s own barley. Each year they sow on the own 1,000 acre farm, Balvenie Mains, just as they always did. The only concession to the 21st century is the use of a combine harvester when the crop is ripe for harvesting. Apart from that, the barley is grown the same way as it was in the beginning.
The Balvenie is the only distillery to maintain and operate a working floor maltings in the Scottish Highlands. After steeping the grain in spring water sourced from the hills above the distillery, it is spread across the malting floor. The barley warms up as it starts to germinate and needs to do so evenly. Balvenie’s four malt men turn it up to four times a day until it’s ready for the kiln. Here it is dried using anthracite and a carefully judged amount of peat, which adds further complexity to our whisky. .
Of all the things that affect the taste of The Balvenie, the shape and size of the stills are two of the most important. Employing an own coppersmith means that these crucial (and rather large) craftsman’s tools are kept in peak condition. .
Each time some repair is done, he cuts an armful of juniper branches and makes sure they’re the first thing boiled inside, in a process known as ‘sweetening the still’. How much juniper, and for how long? A good handful, and a good long while. As the coppersmith says, “there’s nae science to it” - but he’s convinced that if one day (heaven forbid) someone should forget a different spirit would emerge from the cask.