After our fantastic tour of @TheDunphail.the DrivenByDrams gang rested overnight before our Speyside trip had us heading for @BalvenieUS
A distillery that's often overlooked because of it's Glenfiddich big sister next door.
The obligatory group photo outside the Malt Barn and Kiln
Balvenie buy local barley and floor malt it on site to produce around 20% of their requirements.
The malt is stored in a huge Malt Barn
Before being soaked in huge vats and laid out on the malting floor to germinate.
The malted barley in then dried in the kiln with the smoke disappearing through the Doig Ventilator or cupola.
Mark getting his nose stuck into every nook and cranny!
The beautiful cupola from outside.
The malted barley then goes through the 'Robin Reliant' de-stoner and mill then into the huge Mash Tun.
There's two here as one belongs to the Kininvie Distillery next door!
Then into one of the huge Washbacks for fermentation.
The resulting beer is then distilled to produce new make spirit!
The last step is maturation, in oak casks. At Balvenie they have their own cooperage so we kidnapped an old American couple and trundled off in a Land Rover to see it!
Over one million casks on site!
The cooperage
On the way back we could just glimpse the Kininvie Still House in the trees. They've not released anything since their interesting experiment series a few years back - I wonder what they are doing?
Our wonderful guide Morag then took out her Copper Dog, sampled a cask and asked if we'd like a smell?
We were then offered the chance to Cooper Dog the casks ourselves and bottle some whisky to take home!
FF Bourbon
FF Sherry
Books were signed to make it all official!
It was then back to the tasting room
to taste a wonderful selection of Balvenie release!
In summary this was one of my best ever distillery visits - easily in the top 5 - they have the whole process in one place, I can't think of anywhere else which does, but there must be one or two?
This isn't a distillery you can just turn up and tour - you need to book months in advance - be warned!
The Gang then grabbed some cake bars and sprinted up the road to our next tour at Glenfiddich!
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