Newer Distilleries : Ballindalloch

This is the latest in an occasional series about newer distilleries, this entry is about Ballindalloch Distillery.

Although they've been distilling for xxx years they've just released their first whiskies, I got to try two of them!
Location

The Ballindalloch Distillery is located here.

History

Ballindalloch has been the home of the Macpherson-Grant family since 1546, there was a distillery on the estate in the early 1820s built at Delnashaugh, above the junction of the rivers Avon and Spey near where the Delnashaugh Hotel stands today. It was built by Sir George Macpherson-Grant, the 3rd Baronet. He was also co-founder of Cragganmore distillery with John Smith in 1869. He also enjoyed a close association with Robert Hay, who built Glenfarclas distillery on the North side of the Estate. His final direct involvement with a new distillery was the building of Speyside Distillery in Kingussie in 1896. The Macpherson-Grants remained involved with Cragganmore for the best part of the 20th century, eventually selling their stake in the distillery to DCL in 1965

The current distillery was built in 2011-2013 in an old steading on the estate, started production in late 2014 and officially opened in April 2015, it’s a small, old-style distillery, making a heavy Speyside character of spirit, using worm tubs for condensing purposes.

Process

Ballindalloch uses barley harvested from its own fields and feeds its award-winning Aberdeen Angus cattle on the draff. A semi-lauter mash tun fills for 10,000 litre wooden washbacks for at least 60 hours.

A pair of Forsyths made copper stills produce a  robust and fruity spirit.

Two worm tubs are used as condensers.

Maturation

First and refill barrels, first and refill hogsheads and first fill Sherry butts are used to mature the whisky in a stowed warehouse.

Whisky

From the beginning the distillery set out to age it's spirit for at least 8 years before any was released. The bourbon cask below came in at just under that!

Website
Link to the distillery website

 

Review:

Ballindalloch recently released a pair of single casks for the UK market - I was able to get try them:

Dram	2016 Bourbon Single Cask #235	2015 Sherry Single Cask #114
Characteristics	Full maturation in First Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrel Cask strength 61.1% 300 Bottles D: 28 Apr '16 B: 31 Jan '24	Full maturation in First Fill Ex-Oloroso Sherry Butt Cask strength 61.1% 620 Bottles D: 12 Mar '15 B: 20 Feb '24
Distillery notes	Shaved coconut, fresh grass, mango, lemons and honey	Dried Fruit, hints of cinnamon and chocolate, fresh oranges
My thoughts:
Appearance
	Light gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, take an age to bead up, forming an inverted crown, and fall as slow thin legs.	Dark gold, almost bronze, in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, take an age to bead up, forming an inverted crown, and fall as slow thin legs.
Nose	Vanilla ice cream, stewed orchard fruit and a sweet citrus. Apples and pears mix with apricots and clementine. It's quite fruity and rich, no hints of the high ABV or it's youth. A little time and air turns the fruit a little more tropical, there's a digestive biscuit note and some floral hints.	Dunnage funk, sherry soaked dried fruit, prunes, balsamic vinegar drizzled strawberries and blueberry jam. There's an old leather sofa note, some raw aged steak and a hint of grilled pineapple.
Palate	Thick sweet arrival, golden syrup and tropical fruit: dried pineapple, kiwi, banana. It coats the mouth well, there's a little effervescence, but without any hint of it's ABV. A few more sips offer rum and raisin ice cream, a gentle ginger spice and a little sweet citrus. There's a dryness as the liquid disappears, a little chalky even.	Thick chewy arrival, very robust, warms the mouth and throats as it goes down! The ABV is more noticeable on this one. Honey, toffee and dark fruit shine through alongside the meat, now BBQed, and grilled pineapple note from the nose. There's a brown sugar sweetness, some spice and a little Fruit and Nut chocolate. Also dry as the liquid disappears.
Finish	Short and dry with a little ginger spice and sweet citrus.	Long, spicy and dry with cinnamon, sherried dried fruit and a little salinity.
Overall	I think these are amongst the first releases from the distillery, there was a 46% bourbon also released recently. To be honest I didn't realise they'd been distilling for so long, when we drove past last summer (photo below) we didn't think they had released any whisky so we didn't stop. The ex-bourbon giving typical vanilla, tropical fruit and spice notes but the mouthfeel was really good - the worm tubs offering a little more 'thickness' to the spirit. The oloroso cask has completely swamped the spirit  - loads of  dark fruit, balsamic vinegar and dunnage funk notes giving a lovely whisky but it could have been from anywhere! Both of these drams hid their ABV well but I head did notice an hour later!  Good to see single cask, cask strength releases, like Annandale but like Annandale the prices are very high, both of these were around the £100 mark, I'm guessing these will start to fall as more stock becomes available.

Thanks to Mitch @Dame_JudiHench for the bottle split!