WHISKEY POP UP BOOK 威士忌立體書

THE BALVENIE

POP UP BOOK

百富立體書插畫

illustration / editorial

Project Maneger - Tony | Art Director - Daoba | Illustrator - Yashin | Chapter Title Designer - Daoba

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- OUR RARE CRAFT -
I
Our Home-grown Barley

THE BALVENIE still grows and malts its own barley.

Each year we sow barley on our 1,000 acre farm, Balvenie Mains, overlooking the distillery, just as we always have.

The only concession we make to the 21st century is the use of a combine harvester when the crop is ripe for harvesting. Apart from that, the barley is grown the same way as it was in the beginning.

- OUR RARE CRAFT -
II
Our Malting Floor

THE BALVENIE operates a working floor maltings, one of only a handful still active in Scotland.

After steeping the grain in spring water sourced from hills above the distillery, we spread the grains across our traditional malting floor where our malt men turn it by hand up to four times a day until it's ready for the kiln. Here it is dried using anthracite and a carefully judged amount of peat, which adds further complexity to our whisky.

- OUR RARE CRAFT -
III
Our Coppersmith

Of all the things that affect the taste of The Balvenie, the shape and size of the stills are two of the most important. Employing our own coppersmith means that these crucial (and rather large) craftsman’s tools are kept in peak condition.

Thanks to our coppersmith we don’t do it all that often. Each time we do, he cuts an armful of juniper branches and makes sure they’re the first thing boiled inside, in a process known as ‘sweetening the still’. How much juniper, and for how long? A good handful, and a good long while. As our coppersmith says, “there’s nae science to it” - but he’s convinced that if one day (heaven forbid) someone should forget a different spirit would emerge from the cask.

- OUR RARE CRAFT -
IV
Our Coopers

The casks are so important to the taste of The Balvenie that we entrust their preparation and maintenance only to our on-site team of coopers.

Some casks need to be ‘toasted’, just enough to open the pores but not enough to burn too deep. It’s quite a skill, but then our coopers repair, rebuild, fill and seal casks all day, all year. An apprenticeship takes four of those years, but the learning doesn’t stop there: it takes more years of experience to keep everything ‘wind and watertight’ every time.

- OUR RARE CRAFT -
V
Our Malt Master

How do we ever decide which casks will be used to craft The Balvenie DoubleWood and which allowed to slumber on for two further decades? Which will go on to sleep in oaken butts from the bodegas, rich in Oloroso sherry? Which in port pipes? That’s the job of our Malt Master, David Stewart.

His unmatched expertise ensures that each expression in our range makes the absolute best of the complex alchemy of spirit, wood and time. For all the skill required to ensure consistency in The Balvenie, our Malt Master looks forward to the future as much as to tradition: it’s he who pioneers new ways of bringing out the mysteries that hide within each drop. After 50 years, to David it’s second nature.