TL; DR: A classic highlander both in terms of malt produced (fruity and honeyed) and appearance: it definitely looks like a Scottish whisky distillery a very good AI algorithm would draw. 

(missed Part 1?)

The bus picked us up at the Dornoch Whisky shop. It was a 20-seater, more than enough for the 15 of us. During the wee ride on the wee bus we had a wee lunch (ok, we’re stopping it…), sandwiches prepared earlier in the van, complemented by our pal John’s homemade Scottish tablet, which he’d prepared using local malts, as usual. The drive to Balblair (yes, that’s where we were headed!) was quite uneventful in the gloomy day, a very Scottish rain was falling over us. To be honest, we didn’t expect anything different when deciding to visit the Highlands in November. 

As we approached Balblair it was pishing doon! The distillery is very picturesque: typical Highlands’ barren hills on the background, it is a combination of low dark buildings (including many warehouses) with a tall red chimney emerging in the middle. In the parking lot there is a shiny copper still behind a row of black barrels with the distillery’s name written on. The distillery was chosen to feature in the movie The Angel’s Share, by Ken Loach. They shot here some of the scenes during the auction of a rare whisky cask from Malt Mill, with Charles McLean playing himself, under a different name of course (for the records, others scenes were filmed in the warehouse of the distillery we visited most times…can you guess which? Here the link in case you want the answer). Although the movie probably isn’t the best among Loach’s filmography, for once it’s one a bit less depressing, and genuinely funny at times. 

The Balblair distillery was built in 1790, one of the oldest in Scotland, and is now owned by Inverhouse (together with Speyburn, Pultney, Knocdhu/Ancnoc and Balmenach), whose parent company (ThaiBev) also owns the wicked Hong Thong ‘whisky’ (which btw we bought during a boring evening in Thailand years ago, such a mistake!). Despite not being new, this is not a brand we were very familiar with. Before our visit, we’d only tried two core expressions (12 and maybe 15), a 10y Gordon&MacPhail Gianluigi’s parents bought during a 2015 family trip in Scotland (just about a year before the whisky bug bit us), one from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society and the one we’d bought that same morning from Thompson Brothers. Overall not many, and we tried them at very different times, which is not ideal to form an opinion on the distillery character. Also, because we got into whisky in the last 5-6 years only, we missed the period when Balblair used to have a vintage core range instead of an age-stated one, so we are alien to the debate on which was better. 

The visitor centre looked recently renewed, nice and tidy, with a low ceiling and dimmed lights. There were a few bottlings (unfortunately mostly overpriced) and some branded merchandise on display, with the counter on the right, and the tasting room and toilettes on the left. Gianluigi remembers this last detail, as he lingered a bit so when he got to the tasting room everyone was waiting for him….Ooops. The guide for the day was Nigel, who turned out to be a competent guide when replying to all the numerous questions (kudos). However, we felt that at times he was pushing it too much, providing some unsolicited political opinions. After a brief introductory video, we moved to production, where we couldn’t take pictures, sadly.

They source barley from the area (40 miles radius), which for the current production of 1.5 million litres of pure alcohol per year is not trivial (full capacity is a little higher, 1.8mlpa). Their water source is located 4-5 miles away, near the hills. Compared to other distilleries, they aim for a higher percentage of husk in the milling process, 30% instead of the usual 20%, with less grist (60% compared to 70%) and the usual share of flour (10%). They are equipped with a semi-Lauter mashtun (three waters), from which they get an unfiltered cloudy wort, and 6 Oregon pine washbacks of 23,000-litre capacity. They usually fill the washbacks with 9,000 litres of wort only, and fermentation lasts around 60 hours. 

They have a pair of shiny copper stills, and until the 70s they used to have wormtubs, then replaced by tube-and-shell condensers. A laser system checks when to take the cut from the spirit still, between 69% abv and 59.9%. In our understanding, most of the production is sent to Chivas in tankers. They used to keep about 10% on site, but now more given the success of their single malt (and of single malt in general) they increased the share. The newmake is filled into casks (mostly barrels) at 68% (which considering their cut, seems high). 

As the production tour ended, we moved back into the visitor centre for the tasting, and to avoid the even heavier rain. The line-up consisted of 4 drams, 3 from the core range plus the distillery bottle-your-own. It was a solid line-up: only the 12y (ex-bourbon cask only) to many of us seemed a bit bland, although well priced. Both the 15y and 18y (both finished in sherry casks) were very good, as well as the very juicy (and buttery, toffee, honeyd) distillery bottle-your-own, just a shame for the prices (the 15y just below £100, the latter two well north of it).

Overall, it was a nice distillery visit, quite standard, and the tasting was a nice overview on Balblair whisky style, which definitely helped us put it finally on the map, flavour-wise. 

Stay tuned to hear more about this whisky day, and until next week, Slainte!

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Balblair Signature Tour

Price: £45.00 pp (November 2023)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: 4 drams, Balblair 12y, 15y and 18y, plus the distillery exclusive bottle-your-own (see below)

Target: everyone

Value for money: Ok

Distillery Exclusive: vintage 2007(~15y), ex-bourbon barrel, 51.6%, cask #422 (£130.00)

Highlights: the picturesque location and buildings

Recommended: the distillery is beautiful, but there might be better value-for-money tours not far away

Link: https://www.balblair.com/

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