Balblair Distillery — Local services in Scotland

Balblair is a fantastic but fairly small, local distillery with polite, friendly & helpful staff who went out of their way to give us a great experience when we visited last year (2017). The tour guide was absolutely lovely & really knew her stuff with very interesting & informative details on the history of Balblair (it was established in 1790!) & the intricacies of the preparation, distilling processes & maturing of their whiskies. There was also excellent signage & information placed along the route of the tour for those wanting to take photos, which they allow you to do freely. The whisky is excellent & the tasting session at the end of the tour was good fun! The gift shop is also very good with plenty of Balblair vintages on offer (some of which are rather pricey but worth every penny) along with a blended scotch (Hankey Bannister) which has one of their malts in the mix & other spirits (gin, cognac etc.) produced by sister brands. They have a nice range of Balblair branded souvenir products including t-shirts, jackets, various styles of drinking glass, framed photographs, ornamental plates, leather-bound notebooks, badges (buttons), pens & pencils etc. There's something for everyone & every budget. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Balblair & would definitely...

We visited on the day they were fixing the roof and had to close the main shop / visitor centre for safety reasons. We totally understand this. We were welcomed by Nigel who conducted our tour and have to say he made our visit really special. It was part of an 80th Birthday trip of a lifetime to Scotland for my guests. Every time I go there, all of the staff are wonderful. However of equal importance is that the tour and the quality of the whisky is also wonderful. It is so good to see so much care going into the creation of Balblair to give is such great whisky which makes the journey from Still to Glass. This is great especially when you see other bigger distilleries turning industrial and the quality has gone down - really down. Granted I was saddened when Balblair stopped vintages (I was collecting them!) but their core range is head and shoulders above many / most other whiskies available today. Going to this distillery is also great as it is what you would expect to see, smell and feel when visiting one in its setting as opposed to going to McMalt Disneyland or a fix drinks Factory. Thank you once again Balblair and...

Love Balblair whiskies and need no convincing of just how good they are. Presently have 7 different vintages open on my shelves and every one is outstanding in its own way. Also have no problem with Balblair being small and off the beaten track - that makes it even more likable. But when a visit has been arranged 3 days in advance, a couple of confirmed emails exchanged to and fro, and then one fronts up at the mutually agreed time and there's no record in the appointment book of our visit and no one knows quite what to do with us, then that's not an optimal way to build up good relations with faithful customers. It's only a small critique (as I'm a dedicated fan of the distillery) but no other distillery in the Highlands on my recent tour made this kind of unnecessary mistake. So if you're passing through Tain and Edderton, then don't be blinded by the big signs pointing you solely to Glenmorangie. Get off the beaten track and treat yourself to some of Scotland's very finest single malt whiskies at the modest and unassuming Balblair...