The Balvenie Distillery
Speyside / Scotland
The story of The Balvenie Distillery
Balvenie Castle lent its name to the adjacent farm, Balvenie Mains. It also lent some stones to Balvenie New House, a replacement dwelling rather easier to heat and maintain than a medieval fort. After several decades the house itself stood empty, but soon developed a new role as the heart of a brand-new distillery from which the first spirit flowed on May Day 1893.The basement became a warehouse, the first storey a malt floor and upstairs a loft to store the barley from the fertile thousand acres of Balvenie Mains. In the 1920s we built a new maltings right next door, using stone blocks from the now levelled New House. Little else has changed over the years.We’ve added stills, but they’re the same special shape. We’ve matured our malt in many different casks and pioneered new expressions, but it’s still the same spirit that goes in. We’ve added people, but the unique atmosphere remains the same.