Balvenie 21 Year Old - PortWood - Circa 2000

One of Speyside’s iconic distilleries, Balvenie was founded in 1892 by William Grant & Sons of Glenfiddich, who still own and run the distillery today. Balvenie was expanded three times between 1957-71, bringing the total number of stills to eight and the distillery now has a capacity of around 7m litres per annum and makes one of the world’s best-selling single malt whiskies. 

Balvenie’s recent success is largely thanks to Master Distiller Emeritus David Stewart, who started his career at Grant’s in 1962 and pioneered the art of double maturation with the release of Balvenie Doublewood in 1993. Prestige official bottlings of Balvenie are highly sought after, particularly the long-aged 1960s and 1970s vintages and the more recent Tun 1401 and Tun 1509 series. Independent Balvenie is extremely rare, though Cadenhead’s and Dun Eideann/Signatory have released some excellent vintages in the past.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.