Balmenach distillery is nestled at the bottom of the Haughs of Cromdale in the Spey valley. It was in these hills on the last day of April 1690 that an army of jacobite soldiers were ambushed by dragoon guards. As the jacobite forces were ambushed during their sleep many were slain and the remaining fled nearly naked; this defeat effectively ended the jacobite rising in the highlands.
In the early 1800's three brothers crossed these hills from Tomintoul and set up a farm. One of these brothers was a James McGregor who also set up an illicit still on the site. Shortly after the licensing act was introduced, James McGregor obtained a license for his distillery formally establishing it in 1824.
The distillery was owned and operated by the McGregor family until it was sold in 1922 to a company that would become DCL. In 1993 UDV took the decision to mothball Balmenach, it lay silent until 1998 when Inver House Distillers bought the distillery making it the company's fifth and largest distillery. The first distillate of Balmenach for 5 years was then produced in March that year, and stored in casks in one of the three dunnage warehouses on the site.
In common with Inver House Distillers' other plants, the traditional machinery and methods are still used to this day. This includes a cast iron mash tun mashing slightly more than 8 tonnes every 7.5 hours. The wash is fermented in six Douglas fir washbacks for a minimum of 50 hours before it is sent to the stillhouse for distillation.
The stillhouse houses three wash stills and three spirit stills capable of producing over 2 million litres of whisky a year. This sprit travels slowly through 90 metres of copper tube coils in large tubs of cold water, known as "worm tubs", before it enters one of the two spirit safes in the stillhouse. From there it is transferred to one of two spirit vats. The spirit is finally matured in oak casks for many years until the spirit is deemed at its best for bottling.
Today at Balmenach Distillery Inver House Distillers also produce their premium Gin, Caorunn Gin.
Caorunn is inspired by Celtic tradition and is infused with five Celtic botanicals. It is handcrafted and small batch distilled gin controlled by the Gin Master, Simon Buley. A small batch is usually 1,000 litres. We use pure grain spirit, not molasses like most gins, to ensure high quality.
The pure grain spirit is vaporised through our Unique Copper Berry Chamber that was made in the 1920's, when gin was produced with a slow process to enable enough time to infuse the subtle flavour of the botanicals. It is a round chamber with copper frame and carries 4 trays.
We spread our botanicals on the trays, allowing the grain spirit vapour to meet the botanicals on a largest possible surface during the infusion process and to pick up the aromatics and flavours of the botanicals.
Caorunn draws on centuries of distilling expertise, on the pure Scottish Highland water provided by the surrounding springs and the time-honoured Celtic botanicals which are characteristic plants of the surrounding hills of Balmenach Distillery.