Ballindalloch

Nothing can yet be said about the Whisky from the Ballindalloch distillery. Since the 22 September 2014 is distilled here, so the family Macpherson-Grant could mathematically already present a Whisky. According to statements by the manager of the distillery, Colin Poppy, they do not want to bring a very young Whisky on the market. The Whisky which is aimed is not smoky, but strong and expressive.

Whisky production at the Ballindalloch distillery does not follow the motto "as much as possible". The distillery works in a single-shift operation with three employees and thus achieves an annual production of 100,000 liters. Everything is done by hand without automation or computers.  

Distilling takes place in a 5,000-liter wash still and a 3,600-liter spirit still. The stills, the mash tun and other production vessels and equipment were manufactured and installed by Forsyths. The two stills have a slightly different shape: The Spirit Still has an additional small bulge, called a Reflux Ball, which provides additional reflux and thus increased copper contact. The Spirit Safe of the distillery is a second-hand equipment: it comes from the Cragganmore distillery and was a gift from the Cragganmore owner Diageo.

The semi-lauter-mashtun works with one ton of malt. Ballindalloch uses grain grown on the Macpherson Grants' own estate fields and malted by Bairds in Inverness. The water for the distillery comes from seven boreholes from the Garline Woods near the Ballindalloch estate.

Fermentation takes place in five Oregon pine washbacks. The fermentation processes vary in length due to the 5-day week. Each week, wort is taken from three washbacks that fermented for 114 hours and from two that fermented for only 66 hours. Because the New Spirit is collected together, it still results in consistent quality.

The warehouse, which is located directly on the distillery site, was quickly filled. Since May 2015, Ballindalloch has been taking the casks to other warehouses located near Glenfarclas.

The land on which the Ballindalloch distillery is built has been home to the Macpherson-Grant family since 1546 and for 23 generations. Around 1820 there was already a distillery in Delnashaugh, less than a mile from the new distillery now. Quite officially and on a larger scale, the 3rd Baronet of Ballindalloch, Sir George Macpherson-Grant, then entered the distilling business in 1869 when he became co-founder of the Cragganmore Distillery. There were also close contacts with Robert Hay, who built the Glenfarclas distillery on the north side of the Ballindalloch Estates. The last distillery foundation with which Sir George can be associated was the construction of the Speyside Distillery in Kingussie in 1896.

Then distilling took a back seat in the Macpherson-Grant, until the current heads of the family and owners of the Ballindalloch estate Clare and Oliver Russell began looking for a use for old farm buildings in late summer 2011. Together with their sons Guy and Edward, they made the decision to build a distillery. Two years were spend for planning and building. The old buildings were to be preserved as far as possible. It was planned as a "single estate" distillery: From the production of raw materials to bottling, all production steps happen here on the estate. Charly Smith, former manager of Talisker, could be won as Master Distiller, manager and competent advisor during the construction.

The official opening of the Ballindalloch distillery took place on 16th April 2015 by the then Duke and Duchess of Rothesay - probably better known as King Charles and Queen Camilla. At this time had been burning for several months, more precisely since the 22 September 2014.

There is no permanently open visitor center, but tours of the distillery are available by appointment.