Tour Details

The maltings will be operational all year round.

The Maltings ~ we are very proud of our heritage, and the fact that we have one of the last floor maltings in operation in mainland Scotland. You will be able to see the process from the steep tanks, through the labour intensive malt floors (they are not referred to as the site gymnasium for nothing...), and into the malt kiln to see the malted barley being dried over a fire of peat and anthracite, before plunging down to see the fire itself that takes 2 days to dry each batch of barley, then through to the mash house...

The Mash House ~ one of the more modern areas of the site, this is where the malted barley is milled, and this grist is mixed with warm water in our mash tun, releasing the sugars so critical for malt whisky making, then onwards to the 'Tun Room'

The Tun Room, is where the transformation begins, from warm sweet wort, into a strong beer, and the base for our distilling. The power of nature is released in traditional wooden wash backs as yeast is added, causing the whole mixture to foam up. The whir of switchers beating the top of this foam can be heard across the room, and you can learn about the various stages of fermentation before the freshly fermented liquid goes across to the still house.

The Still House, contains our copper stills, that are maintained by our very own coppersmith, and this is where over two distillations, in slightly different stills, the alcohol level is raised and the heart of the second run, a clear spirit runs through the spirit safe, and onwards for maturation.

Warehouse 24, is the cellars of the old Balvenie House that stood on the site and, contains some of our older, and rarer whiskies. A traditional earth floored (dunnage) warehouse, the spirit slowly matures, losing a small amount per year to the angels from the traditional oak casks

The Cooperage, the tour then takes a walk down to the cooperage, where our own coopers tend the traditional oak casks that we use for maturation. Unusual in this day and age to find a distillery that still retains these skills in house, you may even see our head cooper Don Ramsay, who's been with us for the last 44 years repairing a damaged cask, or rejuvenating an older cask

The Distillery Office, by this time, you will probably have worked up a desire to taste some of our whiskies. Back in our Distillery Office you will be guided through a nosing and tasting that will take you from the fresh clear spirit from the stills, up through our range to the award winning Balvenie Thirty.