Balvenie is one of the world’s most loved Single Malt Scotch Whiskies. The multi-award winning Balvenie Distillery in Banffshire is famous for being the only one left in Scotland to retain the traditional crafts of whisky production. Nowhere else will you find a distillery that still grows its own barley, still malts in its own traditional floor maltings and still employs a team of coopers to tend all the casks and a coppersmith to maintain the stills. Meanwhile their maltmen turn the barley up to four times a day, seven days a week. The Distillery has been owned and managed by the same independent family company for five generations.

To produce The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year Old, David Stewart MBE takes whisky that has spent at least 12 years in traditional whisky casks, American oak ex-bourbon barrels and hogsheads to mellow the maturing spirit and Impart warming layers of vanilla spiciness. He then moves it to Spanish oak ex-Oloroso sherry casks for an additional nine months to increase complexity, bringing fruity, honeyed depths to the resulting Single Malt. The whisky is then transferred to large oak vessels called “tuns” for 3-4 months to allow the whiskies to “marry”. This is an excellent introduction to a matured whisky for your collection and would also make a welcome gift for a loved one.