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 Situated
on the River Spey in the very heart of Speyside, the Balmenach
distillery was an illicit distillery when it started producing
in 1801. Smugglers, bothies and illicit drinking were
all prevalent in the area. It is also of interest to mention
that this is same area where in 1690 an army of Jacobites
were ambushed by Dragoon Guards. As a result, this defeat
effectively ended the Jacobite rising in the Highlands.
It was not until 1824 that James MacGregor,the original
founder and local farmer decided to licence his "peat
shed" as a distillery.
The distillery was owned and operated by the McGregor
family until it was sold in 1922 to a company that  would
become Distillers Company Limited (DCL). In 1993, United
Distillers & Vinters (UDV) took the decision to mothball
Balmenach and the distillery lay silent until 1998 until
Inver House Distillers bought it making it the company's
fifth and largest distillery. The first distillate of
Balmenach for 5 years was then produced in March that
year, and stored in casks in one of the three dunnage
warehouses on the site.
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BALMENACH 1981 CADENHEAD'S
SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY
ABV: 61.0%
Region: Speyside
Volume: 750.0 ML
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| Ardmore
won the gold medal “Best in Class” distinction
at the 2008 International Wine & Spirit Competition
where they described Ardmore in the below tasting
notes:
One wonders what perfectly peated is? This must
be close to it. Peat leads the way on the nose
followed by heather, sweet tobacco, chocolate,
orange and spice with gentle notes of peat all
the way along with wonderful malty tones. Subtle
but complex in the mouth with lively flow and
loads of emerging flavours. With time in the glass
oats, honey and heather begin to show. Gentle
oak cradle. Long, sublimely smooth finish. Gorgeous
dram. |
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The
Balmenach Distillery
As is predominant of Inver House Distillers, the traditional
machinery and methods are still used to this day at the
Balmenach Distillery. This includes a cast iron mash tun
mashing slightly more than 8 tonnes every 7.5 hours. The
wash is fermented in six douglas fir washbacks for a minimum
of 50 hours before it is sent to the stillhouse for distillation.
The stillhouse comprises of three wash stills
and three spirit stills capable producing over 2 million
litres of whisky a year. This sprit travels slowly through
90 metres of copper tube coils in large tubs of cold water,
known as "worm tubs", before it enters one of
the two spirit safes in the stillhouse. There it is transferred
to one of two spirit vats. The smaller of these being
used for the filling of casks on site to then be matured
in oak casks for many years until the spirit is deemed
at its best for bottling.
The Balmenach Distillery does not offer a visitor centre
or tour guides. However, you can still call ahead and
see whether you can arrange a time to stop by and visit.
Tel: +44 (01)479 872569
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