The Balvenie reveals not one, but two rare 50-year-old whiskies. The most handcrafted of single malts, The Balvenie, has unveiled two very special whiskies, both matured for fifty years at its distillery in the heart of Scotland. Filled from the same distillation into the same type of cask on the same day in 1963, the two new releases of The Balvenie Fifty are markedly different in character, despite their identical origins. On the rare occasions that Scotch whisky is left in casks to mature for 50 years, there is no guarantee it will turn out to be a great single malt.

Monitored closely by The Balvenie Malt Master David Stewart over the past 50 years, these two whiskies have matured into a pair of stunning examples of The Balvenie at a great age and are miraculously different in nearly every way. This is testament both to the mysteries of maturation and the traditional rare crafts of whisky making still employed at The Balvenie Distillery. The Balvenie Single Malt Scotch Whisky is produced by William Grant &  Sons Ltd, an award-winning independent, family-owned distiller founded by William Grant in 1886 and today run by his direct descendants. The pinnacle of The Balvenie’s range, these whiskies have lain in European oak hogsheads since being filled on May 28, 1963, the year after Stewart joined the company. Commenting on the release of these two bottlings, the longest-serving Malt Master in the Scotch whisky industry, Stewart said: “The effect of maturation on the final character of a whisky is widely known and is becoming better understood, yet it still has an air of mystery around it. It’s rare that one fifty-year-old whisky has aged beautifully over time, but for two that were distilled on the very same day to mature into such exceptional single malts is something very special.

The whisky matured in Cask 4567 has a deep reddish hue and a beautifully full taste characterised by the dark fruits and spice I would expect of The Balvenie matured in European oak. However, the whisky from Cask 4570 is wonderfully surprising given that it’s from the same type of cask, filled on the same day. It has a rich golden hue, vanilla sweetness and an elegant complexity that can only be achieved by such lengthy maturation. Both are among the most complex, elegant and fine whiskies ever to be released from Warehouse 24, the home of our oldest and rarest whiskies.” Born in Ayr on the west coast of Scotland in 1945, Stewart had joined the distillery in 1962 and was appointed the distiller’s Malt Master in 1974. His renowned ability to identify the finest casks of whisky for maturation has helped William Grant & Sons earn the Distiller of the Year accolade an unprecedented eight times. The two whiskies are both bottled at cask strength, and are non-chill filtered.

Both have been hand-filled at The Balvenie distillery into hand-blown glass bottles and are presented in very special wooden cases. Handmade by Scottish craftsman Sam Chinnery, the cases consist of forty nine layers of wood and a closing layer in brass, which echoes the fittings of the distillery’s stills and spirit safes. Like the whiskies, one box is darker in colour than the other and, also just like the two whiskies, both are works of art — and craft — in their own right.