The Distillery Story

The William Grant Way

Thanks to natural alchemy and centuries-old craftsmanship, The Balvenie is unique among single malts. Our whisky-making process is dedicated to maintaining the Five Rare Crafts and we are the only distillery in Scotland that still grows its own barley, uses traditional floor maltings and keeps both a coppersmith and a team of coopers on site. And of course, our Malt Master David C. Stewart MBE presides over the all-important maturation process. Making The Balvenie the most hand-crafted of single malts.

  • 1892

    William Grant builds The Balvenie distillery in the abandoned Balvenie New House.

  • 1893

    Whisky production begins at the distillery May 1.

  • 1923

    William Grant passes away and his son, John, begins the first expansion of the distillery.

  • 1929

    The original maltings are replaced with the traditional malting floor we still use today.

  • 1962

    David C. Stewart MBE begins working with William Grant & Sons at the age of 17.

  • 1971

    The first official bottling of The Balvenie single malt whisky is released.

  • 1974

    David C. Stewart MBE becomes Malt Master of The Balvenie, the fourth in the distillery’s history.

  • 1983

    Malt Master David C. Stewart first experiments with maturing The Balvenie in two different wood types in succession, what would later be called ‘finishing’, and first bottled as The Balvenie Classic.

  • 1987

    The Balvenie is released as a 50 Year Old whisky, one of the industry’s first bottling of such great age.

  • 1993

    The Balvenie is relaunched on the occasion of the distillery’s centenary in three iterations: Founder’s Reserve Aged 10 Years, DoubleWood Aged 12 Years and Single Barrel Aged 15 Years.

  • 2004

    David C Stewart MBE celebrates 30 years as our Malt Master and The Balvenie Aged THIRTY Years is launched.

  • 2010

    Launch of Tun 1401, the first of the Tun range in which David C. Stewart MBE selects some of his favorite rare casks from their oldest warehouses then marries them in a Tun.

  • 2014

    Tun 1509 replaces Tun 1401 after nine batches of the latter.

  • 2015

    The Balvenie DCS Compendium launches as handover notes of David's knowledge and expertise within the whisky industry in liquid and literary form.

  • 2019

    The Balvenie launches Stories, whisky expressions that celebrate stories of character, craft and human endevour.

  • 2021

    The Rare Marriages range pays tribute to David’s dedication to designing and building exceptional flavour, through the marriage of rare casks.  

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