The third release in The Balvenie Stories range is a particularly rich and exciting 26 year old expression, title A Day of Dark Barley. It sounds quite ominous, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, here’s a spoiler to the end of the story – it results in excellent whisky!

This expression harks back to a day in 1992, when Balvenie mashman Brian Webster and maltman Robbie Gormley took in a delivery of dark barley, kicking of a long experiment. Dark barley isn’t a common sight in the whisky world – you’re more likely to see it put to use in beer brewing, particularly those yummy stouts we hear people talking about. Turns out, it also makes yummy single malt. Ideal.