Balmenach distillery was bought from Diageo forerunners United Distillers in 1997 by Inver House (who have done great work with Balblair, Old Pulteney and An Cnoc) and single malt whisky production has been continuous since 1998, but the last official bottling from the distillery was released over twenty years ago in 2002. Balmenach is now a key malt ingredient in Inver House's Hankey Bannister blended Scotch whisky.
Balmenach has been something of an obscure malt through the years, quietly chugging away to fill the blenders needs, but there are many fine examples of its meaty, robust Speyside single malt whisky to be found and it is well worth investigating.
Balmenach Distillery
Founded: 1824
Stills: 3 Wash Stills, 3 Spirit Stills
Water Source: Balmenach Burn
Capacity: 2.9 Million Litres
Owners: Inver House (International Beverage Holdings)
1960-Present: Quiet but Dirty
Balmenach was expanded in 1962 and went from four to six stills, all of which were simultaneously converted to mechanical stoking, and were further converted to internal steam heating a few years later in 1970. All condensing was done by worm tubs, which remain in use at the distillery to this day.
In 1964 Balmenach installed a device called a Saladin Box. This was a method of processing and drying malted barley in a kind of continuous heat-treated trough, and would remain in use until the mid-1980s. Balmenach’s whisky was filled into a high proportion of top quality sherry casks, which is why many people think of it as a predominantly sherried malt.
All these factors combined to make Balmenach quite an oily, meaty and robust whisky, often with slightly dirty and earthy characteristics to its make. There used to be many independent bottlings of Balmenach available, which showed this quite bold and chewy profile very well, but in recent years these have become thin on the ground.
It's entirely fitting with Balmenach's almost determined obscurity that the greatest ever whisky bottled from the distillery - a jaw-droppingly magnificent single cask from the 1966 vintage bottled as a 28-year-old in the mid-1990s by The Whisky Connoisseur - doesn't even have the name Balmenach on the bottle, but instead appears under the pseudonym Miltonhaugh.
The intensity and the richness of Balmenach’s distillate diminished throughout the seventies after the steam heating was installed and production levels rose, but Balmenach's basic character remains today thanks to the distillery’s loyalty to their worm tubs and the use of sherry casks. Bourbon and refill wood-matured examples of Balmenach reveal a more oily and fruity spirit with often quite thick sweet notes, a robust spiciness and some mashy, cereal characteristics as well.
While not all bottlings of Balmenach’s single malt whisky have been of high quality through the years, there are still many fine examples of this more old-style meaty Speysider to be found. Most are independent bottlings released at 10-15 years of age, but WhiskySponge broke the mould with an excellent 33-year-old Balmenach 1988 in 2022 and Hunter Laing followed that up with a remarkable Balmenach 1983 40-year-old in 2024. Let's hope for an official range from Inver House - and that the new Balmenachs of the future will be as good as they have been so often in the past.