Built by the Grant family in Dufftown, and situated next door to sister distillery Glenfiddich, Balvenie is at the heart of Grant's range of blends. Despite their proximity and shared water source, the style of spirit produced by the pair are quite different, with Balvenie producing a sweeter, more honeyed and very lightly peated new make spirit. It wasn't until 1990, when Kininvie distillery was able to shoulder some of the responsibility for blending stock production, that Balvenie was really able to push forward as a single malt. The distillery quickly distinguished itself through use of innovative maturation processes, and was a pioneer of cask "finishing" with the introduction of it's DoubleWood expression in 1993. Balvenie is also one of the few remaining distilleries still using on site maltings, although today this only meets a small percentage of its requirements. This older DoubleWood is still aged in traditional American oak barrels and then transferred into European Oak sherry casks. The extra 5 years maturation have transformed the already great 12 year old, giving it deep vanilla notes and added richness. DoubleWood Age: 17 Years Old Cask Type: American & European Sherried Oak ! This bottling has been discontinued since 2021 !