Balblair Vintages are selected at their absolute peak of maturation. Every cask is sampled, judged and hand selected by John Macdonald, the Balblair Distillery Manager, to find its optimum maturation point. Only a very small percentage of the casks from any given year are finally identified as the very best available at that time.

This outstanding Balblair 1999 vintage 15 year old Single malt is a small batch release from John Macdonald’s hand selected choice of only the finest 2nd fill Ex-Bourbon and 1st fill Ex-Oloroso Sherry Casks which were laid down in the traditional Balblair Dunnage warehouses on the banks of the Dornoch Firth in the year 1999.

If you are not  familiar with Balblair, here’s some information you may find useful. The distillery was founded in 1790 and Balblair Whisky Distillery proudly ranks as one of Scotland’s oldest distilleries. The Balblair Whisky Distillery lies in the village of Edderton amongst peaked mountains which supply the water from the Allt Dearg Burn. In 1872 after the death of the founder John Ross, his son Andrew re-sited the Balblair Whisky Distillery higher into the hills. There is an abundance of peat in the soil in this area. It reopened in 1949 following a protracted closure after the First World War. It has an annual capacity of 1.33 million litres.

Balblair were one of the first distillers to move towards more contemporary packaging for their expressions. The Balblair packaging is iconic and easily recognised throughout the world. We often deliberate in the office about the change to contemporary packaging for such a traditional product as single malt whisky, but on the whole, we love how the distilleries evolve the way they clothe their products.