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Balblair
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Founded
1790
Region
Highland
Status
Operational
Company
Production type
Single malt
Production capacity
1,800,000 litres per year
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Balblair is a malt distillery in the Highland region of Scotland and is owned by ThiaBev, a multinational drinks group based in south-east Asia. The distillery and the rest of the company's Scotch whisky division is operated through its subsidiary, Inver House Distillers.
Inver House first acquired Balblair in 1996 and in the years since have developed it into a formidable single malt brand. Prior to this, the distillery had a greater focus on the provision of blends such as Ballantine's, and its name was more commonly seen on the labels of independent bottlers for most of the 20th century.
The first Balblair distillery bottlings were released in the 1970s by Hiram Walker & Sons who also licensed the same brand to Gordon & MacPhail at the time. Among these was an expression titled V.S. - borrowed from cognac classification - intended to appeal in the French market. Subsequent owners, Allied Distillers, preferred to market Balblair single malt using its best-selling Ballantine's branding however, and it retained this aesthetic through the 1980s until sold to Inver House in 1996.
Inver House gradually built a small core range over the next ten years, including a 10- and 16-year-old and an expression called Elements, before radically rebranding the distillery in 2007. The new range focussed instead on batches of Vintage releases, the first three of which were 1979, 1989 and 1997. Highly-regarded, the whiskies were a huge success and helped cement the distillery as a prominent name in single malt whisky.
In 2019 the distillery was rebranded again, as was its core range which replaced the much-loved vintages with a new range of age statement releases. At present its proprietary offerings are a 12-, 15-, 18- and 25-year-old, alongside a selection of travel retail exclusives and regular single cask bottlings.
Current owner
2006-present
2001-2006
1996-2001
1994-1996
1988-1994
1970-1988
Balblair Distillery
Edderton
Tain
IV19 1LB
Scotland
Active brands
Single malt