Meet the makers at The Balvenie

The one thing everyone emphasises at The Balvenie is that you can’t rush the process. But that doesn’t mean the learning curve isn’t fast. “It’s been a very quick ten years,” says Kelsey McKechnie, the whisky brand’s Malt Master, who first joined the company as a Technical Graduate in 2014. In 2018, aged 26, she was appointed Apprentice Malt Maker under the stewardship of former Malt Master David C. Stewart MBE, before stepping into the role of Malt Master herself in 2023. She is the first woman Malt Master in the company’s history.

It’s certainly a revered position, steeped in the history and traditions of whisky- making, but, as Kelsey is keen to stress, a search for innovation is key to those traditions. Much of her training has been in what is wonderfully described as “analysis of the spirit”, looking at analytical data in order to determine how to ensure the quality is consistent in every bottle the brand produces.

What fascinated Kelsey the most about her work was how, for all the data that can be gathered, the final test before anything leaves the site is for “three people to pick up a glass and nose it, and if they say, ‘Oh it’s not right’, it couldn’t go. I love the thought that our most powerful instrument is what’s on the front of our face.” This, she suggests, is what first sparked her passion for the role, asking the difficult questions of “how do we make flavour – and how do we ensure it’s the same in every bottle?”.

Honorary Ambassador and former Malt Master David C. Stewart MBE is renowned for introducing pioneering techniques, including cask finishing, using the character of different casks (thanks to the individual properties of the wood used, or the wines and spirits they previously contained) to build up flavours. Indeed, it was David who pioneered this technique, now widely used in the industry. It’s this experimental approach ingrained in the company that constantly inspires Kelsey. “When I think about the years to come, I love the thought of not knowing what The Balvenie’s next innovation will be. Cask finishing 2.0, what does that look like? Is that going to be the way that we look at making The Balvenie for the next 100 years? We’ve got lots of things up our sleeves…”

The mixture of traditional crafts with a modern, forward-thinking outlook means that there is a variety of opportunities for those interested in a career in whisky. These range across what the distillery calls its Five Rare Crafts: growing the company’s own barley; painstakingly malting the grain on its own 1920s malting floor; maintaining and repairing The Balvenie’s copper stills; rebuilding the casks at the cooperage to ensure they remain wind and watertight
while breathing character into the whisky; and, of course, the Malt Master role. The distillery also offers an annual scholarship to culinary graduates from Westminster Kingsway College to gain expert experience in hosting international guests.

Similarly, the routes in can vary widely. Some people come from families steeped in whisky-making, such as Cameron Grant, who is three years into his four-year cooper apprenticeship. Cameron is no relation to the founder William Grant, but his father worked as a stillman at Glenfiddich – The Balvenie’s sister brand, distilled next door – for 37 years, and numerous family members including cousins and grandparents have worked for the company at large.

Others, however, find their own route in. For instance, George Paterson, Warehouse and Samples Co-ordinator, worked for his father’s roofing company before discovering the magic of the warehouse. His job consists of monitoring the whisky stocks and drawing samples for the blending team, meaning he is in the rare position of overseeing the casks and getting to nose the whisky, too.

Everyone at The Balvenie speaks of their pride at seeing the fruits of their labour in such famous bottles, aware of the rich heritage they are contributing to. “It’s one of the nicest parts of the role that I get to see both sides,” says Kelsey. “I’ll see the vatted spirit that David’s filled off into casks, and in the next couple of years I’ll see the spirit that I’ve actually filled off. It’s such a lovely handover and such a fantastic legacy associated with it.”

> Photography by Sam Walton