Balmenach Distillery

This little known Speyside distillery was one of the first in Scotland to begin licenced production of whisky. But that place in history aside, it remains off the radar of many single malt lovers to this day. Balmenach Distillery was officially founded in 1824 by James MacGregor, just a year after the Excise Act of 1823 began licencing the production of whisky. The MacGregors had been operating an illicit still on the family farm just outside the town of Cromdale for a number of years prior to this. The founding of Balmenach was a chance to keep up the business without falling afoul of the law.

The MacGregors kept a hold of Balmenach until 1922 when they sold to a consortium of businessmen. This would then become part of Distillers Company Limited in 1925. During this time the number of stills at the distillery was increased to six. DCL itself would later go on to merge with Guinness to form United Distillers.

In May of 1993 the distillery was mothballed by United Distillers due to a slump in the scotch market. Balmenach wouldn’t resume production until 1998 after it was purchased by Inver House Distillers the year before. Inver House remain the owners of Balmenach, but they themselves are now controlled by Thai Beverages.

Balmenach is one of the more traditional distilleries in Scotland and is capable of turning out 1.9 million litres of spirits a year. It is equipped with an 8 ton mash tun and six Douglas Fir washbacks where the mash ferments for more than 50 hours. The three sets of stills are connected to ‘worm tubes’, where the spirit travels through 94 metres of coiled copper tubes before being deposited in a spirit vat for casking.

While there have been a small number of official bottlings of Balmenach single malt, those have been few and far between. The first was a 12 year old released in 1992, just a year before the distillery was mothballed due to a drop in the scotch market. Currently there aren’t any readily available Balmenach single malts being released by the distillery itself. However, there are a number of independent bottlings available for people to find. Companies including Gordon & Mac Phail, That Boutique-y Whisky Company, and Douglas Laing have all released their own editions of Balmenach single malt. The vast majority of the spirits produced by Balmenach are bound for use in blends.

The character of Balmenach whiskies reflect some of the common Speyside characteristics. They are predominately fruity, but spicy on the palate. That comes from the sherry Hogsheads and butts frequently used in the maturation process. The Douglas Laing 10 year old is sweet on the nose, with notes of vanilla. Flavours of orange peel and pears make up the fruity body, with ginger in the finish.