Eager to experiment with The Balvenie profile using what he had learned from a recent trip to Islay, distillery manager Ian Millar ordered a batch of Speyside peat for the kiln. For one week a year, The Balvenie distills a batch of peated malt, resulting in a whisky rich in honey, vanilla and citrus notes with an extra layer of delicate smokiness.
This story begins with distillery manager Ian Millar's eagle eye spotting a week's gap in the distillery schedule. Eager to experiment with The Balvenie profile using what he had learned from a recent trip to Islay, he ordered a batch of Speyside peat for the kiln and built a peat burner on the side 'for, well, extra peatiness'.
Ian continues: "In a way, The Week of Peat was nothing new. In fact, arguably, it's the only week of the year we make whisky the way it used to be made – using smoke from a heavily peated furnace, like in the very old days when every farm burned peat from the land (and made whisky in a pot over the fire, it's worth remembering)."
"We took our inspiration from some of the Islay distilleries. No one on Speyside was doing it like this when we started. Essentially, given the maltings is a big tool for experimentation you can really work with it. So on our return we started to try a few different approaches, one change at a time, to fully understand the impact each change made – patience was required."
"We got our peat from the north-east Speyside village of New Pitsligo, close to Fraserburgh. I helped muck in with the guys in the maltings, shuffling the extra-heavy peat into the kiln with big shovels. We added a peat-burner to the side of the kiln. We tried the burner in the early days allowed us to get levels similar to Laphroaig and Ardbeg, 30 parts per million phenols. Clearly the more we tried, the greater our confidence in peating our own malted barley."
"The first time we did it there was a real buzz on site – engineers, coppersmiths and other team members came and had a look as they had never experienced the production of peated, malted barley before."
"In the mash house there was a beautiful smell of porridge, sweet honey and gentle smoke; it was good enough to bottle!"
AGED 14 YEARS
Nose - Gentle sweet peat smoke, lighter floral notes and delicate butterscotch honey.
Taste - Velvety and round to taste with the peat smoke balancing citrus flavours, oaky vanilla and blossom honey.
Finish - Gentle smoke with a lingering and creamy vanilla sweetness.
This story begins with distillery manager Ian Millar's eagle eye spotting a week's gap in the distillery schedule. Eager to experiment with The Balvenie profile using what he had learned from a recent trip to Islay, he ordered a batch of Speyside peat for the kiln and built a peat burner on the side 'for, well, extra peatiness'.
Ian continues: "In a way, The Week of Peat was nothing new. In fact, arguably, it's the only week of the year we make whisky the way it used to be made – using smoke from a heavily peated furnace, like in the very old days when every farm burned peat from the land (and made whisky in a pot over the fire, it's worth remembering)."
"We took our inspiration from some of the Islay distilleries. No one on Speyside was doing it like this when we started. Essentially, given the maltings is a big tool for experimentation you can really work with it. So on our return we started to try a few different approaches, one change at a time, to fully understand the impact each change made – patience was required."
"We got our peat from the north-east Speyside village of New Pitsligo, close to Fraserburgh. I helped muck in with the guys in the maltings, shuffling the extra-heavy peat into the kiln with big shovels. We added a peat-burner to the side of the kiln. We tried the burner in the early days allowed us to get levels similar to Laphroaig and Ardbeg, 30 parts per million phenols. Clearly the more we tried, the greater our confidence in peating our own malted barley."
"The first time we did it there was a real buzz on site – engineers, coppersmiths and other team members came and had a look as they had never experienced the production of peated, malted barley before."
"In the mash house there was a beautiful smell of porridge, sweet honey and gentle smoke; it was good enough to bottle!"
AGED 14 YEARS
Nose - Gentle sweet peat smoke, lighter floral notes and delicate butterscotch honey.
Taste - Velvety and round to taste with the peat smoke balancing citrus flavours, oaky vanilla and blossom honey.
Finish - Gentle smoke with a lingering and creamy vanilla sweetness.
