Balmenach Distillery

Cromdale, Moray

History: Balmenach distillery can be found at the bottom of the Haughs of Cromdale in the Spey valley in the heart of whisky country. In the early 1800s, three brothers crossed the hills from Tomintoul and set up a farm. One of them, James McGregor, set up an illicit still on the site, and the distillery was formally established in 1824, shortly after the licensing act was passed. The distillery was owned and operated by the McGregor family until it was sold in 1922 to a firm that would become global drinks company Diageo. After being mothballed in 1993, Balmenach lay silent until 1998 when Inver House Distillers bought it over, making it the company’s fifth and largest distillery.

The spirit: Most of the single malt produced here goes into blended whiskies but if you seek it out you can find some lovely independent bottling from companies such as Douglas Laing or Gordon McPhail, who buy casks from the distillery and bottle them to sell for themselves. Try and get hold of the Balmenach 10-Year-Old 2005 from Douglas Laing, a lovely light, fruity expression of the distillery single malt. Caorunn, one of Scotland’s bestselling gins, is also produced here. Despite its growth over the years, Caorunn is a small batch gin and every drop passes through one still at Balmenach. The recipe is inspired by Celtic traditions, using botanicals foraged from around the distillery in Speyside. It is handcrafted and controlled by gin master, Simon Buley, who produces it in small batches of around 1,000 litres. Pure grain spirit is vaporised through the unique copper berry chamber, made in the 1920s when gin was produced with a slow process to enable enough time to infuse the subtle flavour of the botanicals. The Caorunn berry chamber is the world’s only working example of this type of still.

Favourite tipple: Instead of fresh lime, Caorunn suggest adding you add a slice of red apple to your gin and tonic, to complement to the Coul Blush apple botanical in the recipe. It may sound like a marketing gimmick but it actually works very well.

Why visit? I was lucky enough to get a sneak peak at the recently refurbished Caorunn visitors’ experience, which opens in time for the Speyside whisky festival this weekend. While the whisky distillery isn’t currently open to the public, the visitor experience lets you visit the small but picturesque gin plant, have a nosey into Simon Buley’s “measuring room” and touch, feel and smell the botanicals that make Caorunn. The “bothy” serves as reception area and cosy bar to have a G&T at the end of the tour. Other than gin, on sale in the bothy are original artworks by local artists and contemporary artists from around Scotland. Prices are very reasonable and include a G&T in the bothy.

Geek alert: The distillery name derives from the Gaelic “Am Baile Meadhnach” meaning ‘the middle farm’.

Interesting fact: The gin recipe includes six traditional botanicals (juniper, coriander, lemon peel, orange peel, angelica root, cassia bark) as well as five Scottish botanicals that are found in the area: bog myrtle, rowanberry, heather, dandelion and Coul Blush apple. Caorunn is Gaelic for Rowanberry, and is pronounced Karoon.

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