Making Balblair

Water

The water used by the distillery in Edderton flows down the tiny Allt Dearg burn. This soft, untreated water source flows through an open ditch to the distillery and is one of the essential elements in the production of Balblair.

Barley

The malted barley used by Balblair is virtually unpeated. Carefully ground through a Porteus mill, the malt is then mashed with the Allt Dearg burn water in a mash-tun to create the sugary ‘wort’. One mash will take over six hours to complete in a slow drain process. The wort goes on to traditional wooden washbacks, where yeast is added to start fermentation.

Wood

Balblair has six traditional wooden washbacks, each made of Oregon pine. Not only are they beautiful, but the wood contains ‘micro-flora’, a friendly bacteria which gives the wash a secondary fermentation, adding further flavour.

Stills

The two stills at the Balblair distillery have large boil-pots, fat squat necks and lye pipes with a downward slope towards the condensers. Not only do they capture the fruity esters at the start of the distillation but also the heavier oils at the end that give Balblair its “body”. During this process, we cut at 60 per cent so as not to roughen the spirit. This is a small cut compared to other distillers, but Balblair is made for quality, not quantity.

Casks

Cask selection is a vital part of producing quality whisky. Balblair’s complexity comes from a balance between the new make spirit and the cask during maturation. It matures superbly in American and Spanish oak and we have a strict wood policy in force, where 95% of casks filled at Balblair are ex-bourbon.

Maturation

The spirit for single malt is filled into carefully selected casks and stored in one of the eight traditional style warehouses or dunnages for maturation.

Then the waiting process begins. . . .