The Balvenie Single Malt Scotch Whisky recently announced the launch of The Balvenie Stories, a collection of single malt expressions inspired by the character and craft created at their distillery.
The three expressions, The Sweet Toast of American Oak, The Week of Peat and A Day of Dark Barley, are accompanied by a narrative that explains how and why they were made. Aged to 12 years, The Sweet Toast of American Oak tells the story of what can happen when ancient technique meets fresh ideas, as newly appointed Apprentice Malt Master Kelsey McKechnie experimented with twice-charred white American oak from Kelvin Cooperage in Louisville, Kentucky to produce an even fruitier, sweeter tasting Balvenie. The Week of Peat, aged 14 years, is an evolved expression of The Balvenie Peat Week Aged 14 Years, which launched globally in 2017. This expression tells the tale of Malt Master David C. Stewart MBE and former distillery manager Ian Millar using a week’s gap in the distillery’s production schedule to experiment with the use of peat in the barley drying process, having sampled various ages since 2002. Finally, A Day of Dark Barley, which is aged 26 years, was inspired by Stewart and The Balvenie’s malt men experimenting with a heavily roasted dark barley in 1992. The resulting liquid was originally released in 2006 as the 14-Year-Old Balvenie Roasted Malt, however casks were retained for extra maturation.
“Stories are the lifeblood of The Balvenie distillery. They make up the fabric of who we are and what we do,” says The Balvenie Malt Master David C. Stewart MBE. “The Balvenie Stories collection tells these tales in liquid form, giving whisky drinkers across the globe a special glimpse into the unique and very human nature of how we produce our whisky. Each expression in the collection reflects this by telling its own story via first-hand accounts and recollections of the many people involved.”
This same storytelling is evident in the design of The Balvenie Stories packaging, with each story represented visually on the whisky’s canister and label in bespoke illustrations from British artist and printmaker Andy Lovell. Lovell’s work draws its inspiration direct from the distillery, where he spent time listening to the stories first-hand, before using his bold, hand-made gestural technique to build up images that capture the essence of each tale.
Whisky fans have the unique opportunity to hear these stories in full, as told by those involved, via audio conversations recorded between them and The Balvenie Global Ambassador Gemma Paterson. These conversations were recorded at locations significant to each story’s narrative, including at The Balvenie distillery and Kentucky’s Kelvin Cooperage. This audio and guided audio whisky tastings of each expression with Stewart and McKechnie are available via an NFC-enabled tag on the bottle that drinkers connect to using their smartphones.
The Balvenie Stories collection is available in now. The Sweet Toast of American Oak retails for $59.99, while the The Week of Peat is $99 and A Day of Dark Barley is $799.
