WHISKY TALES

HAND-CRAFTED IN SPEYSIDE, THE BALVENIE RANGE, THE WORLD’S MOST EXQUISITE AND CREATIVE SINGLE MALTS, IS THE RESULT OF EXPERIMENTATION BY MALTMEN, COOPERS AND MASTER BLENDERS THROUGH GENERATIONS.

- PRIYA KUMARI RANA

SPEYSIDE, IN SCOTLAND, is whisky paradise. Tucked away in a corner of north-east Scotland, it’s home to more than half of the world’s whisky distilleries, peppered around the river Spey, the oldest of them being Glenfiddich, founded by William Grant in 1886. William, a Scottish distiller and entrepreneur, and the founder of William Grant & Sons, put up his second distillery, The Balvenie, in 1892. The Balvenie (a part of the William Grant & Sons portfolio now) produces single malts with a unique, honeyed flavour, due in part to the extraordinary history of the land and to the stories of its people.

The Balvenie story began in Dufftown with William Grant. For this shoemaker son of a tailor, the 20 years at a local distillery as an apprentice clerk led Grant to establish The Balvenie, 500 yards from Glenfiddich (they still share a warehousing and bottling facility). He soon acquired the land surrounding it, including a 10-acre farm and a large mansion, the Balvenie New House. “He used this building to house The Balvenie distillery, till 1929, when the family decided to knock it down and use the same stonework to repurpose the present distillery,” says Gemma Paterson, The Balvenie’s global brand ambassador, speaking to Fortune from Glasgow. “The oldest surviving part of the mansion is Warehouse 24, where we keep our oldest casks from 1962, 1965, 1967 as well as our Tun 1509.” Tun 1509 are limited-edition batches of malt whiskies hand-selected by The Balvenie malt master David Stewart MBE.