Behind the Barrel: Talking Sustainability and Tradition with The Balvenie’s Sean Fennelly

The Balvenie's Brand Ambassador, Sean Fennelly, shares how one of Scotland’s most iconic distilleries is embracing greener practices, preserving traditional crafts, and staying true to its roots in a fast-changing whisky world.

In an era where sustainability, heritage, and craftsmanship are becoming ever more central to consumer choices, few whisky distilleries strike that balance quite like The Balvenie. As one of Scotland’s most storied producers of single malt Scotch, The Balvenie continues to uphold time-honoured traditions while taking meaningful steps toward a more environmentally conscious future. From pioneering green energy initiatives to preserving rare artisanal skills, the distillery remains rooted in its values - yet far from standing still.

To explore how The Balvenie is navigating the evolving landscape of whisky production, we spoke with Brand Ambassador Sean Fennelly. From sustainability efforts and generational knowledge transfer to the advantages (and occasional challenges) of being a well-established name in the industry, Sean offered a candid and insightful look behind the scenes at this iconic Speyside distillery.

With greater emphasis on sustainable practices across all aspects of food and drink production, what steps are being taken at The Balvenie to make the production process more environmentally friendly?

The wider Dufftown site that we share with our big sister Glenfiddich proved to be a bit of an industry trailblazer with regard to limiting distillation’s impact on the environment. For years now we’ve operated a plant onsite that converts our draff (the solid waste product left over after fermentation) into biofuel, with some of it powering a fleet of emissions-free delivery lorries. The large surplus created even goes back into Scotland’s energy grid.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of being one of the more established distilleries in the Scotch Whisky industry?

The greatest advantage is that there’s a huge amount of extant knowledge and affection for The Balvenie in whisky’s wider audience – in many cases, ours were the drams that were there for them at the start of their whisky journey, that helped them understand and fall in love with the stuff in the first place. This means we’ve got a working shorthand when communicating with even the most casual whisky drinker, so can get to the juicy details all-the-quicker! One of this job’s greatest pleasures has been hearing of the real, meaningful roles our bottles have played in the life stories of our audience.

Being relatively well-known does come with a few downsides. For instance, like many larger brands, we’ve never been the darlings of the ‘whisky geek’ crowd! A passionate, lively and deeply knowledgeable crew, they’re nevertheless prone to a wee bit of dogmatism. I remember being buttonholed by a gentleman at last year’s London Whisky Show who beseeched “you really need to start bottling at 46%, stop chill-filtering and release some single casks if you want to keep-up”. I politely informed him we’d released six single cask whiskies, all at a high strength and without chill-filtration in 2024 alone, would he like to try a couple? Deep down, it’s always coming from a place of love – it’s for to us to challenge, educate and welcome-in that spikier section of our audience.

The Balvenie is one of only a handful of distilleries that still operates a working floor maltings – why is this so important to the brand, and what affect does it have on the flavour of the whisky?

To me, the floor maltings, just like the other labour-intensive, time-consuming crafts we practise at The Balvenie (like growing our own barley, coppersmithing our own stills, or coopering our own casks) are essential to the brand in a more holistic sense.

What flavour floor-malting your own barley contributes to a final dram is debatable at best. What’s not debatable is that the job of Maltman (or Barley Farmer, or Coppersmith, or Cooper) simply doesn’t exist at many other Scottish distilleries. Less than 1600 people live in Dufftown – only once you’re up there do you realise how startlingly remote the town really is. Our dedication to preserving these crafts keeps dozens of jobs in the area – you can’t be a good distillery if you’re not first being a good neighbour.

That said, floor malting is but one part of a process that, taken as a whole, really can have profound effect on the flavours you’re able to gather into a whisky. Had we not had our own floor maltings, for instance, we’d have no need for our own kiln – meaning bottlings like the purple heather-smoked ‘The Edge of Burnhead Wood 19’ or the heavily-roasted ‘The Day of Dark Barley 26’ couldn’t have been created. Having every part of the process at your disposal gives you the chance to tinker with the very DNA of the whisky you’re making.

What is The Balvenie doing to ensure the generational transfer of knowledge and traditional practices when it comes to whisky production?

There are clear mentoring and succession plans for everybody involved in whisky production at The Balvenie, from Coopers who serve a three-year apprenticeship, to our Malt Master Kelsey, whose own tenure collaborating with and learning from Former Malt Master David Stewart MBE lasted for almost a decade. It’s one big team, though – many of the members on site have done time in several different production roles. We’re also lucky to still have people on-hand of extraordinary longevity like David (Who joined us in 1962), but also Head Cooper Ian McDonald (Joined 1969) and Dennis McBain (Joined 1958!). I don’t see us losing that thread any time soon.

Single Malt Scotch Whisky must be matured for a minimum of three years, and the youngest expression of The Balvenie is released at 12 Years of Age. Does the long “gap” between production and sale present a barrier to innovation?

No, I wouldn’t say so – to my mind, that necessarily long-lead time is the final check-and-balance. It’s prompting us to ask ourselves “Is this worth it? Are we doing this for the right reasons? Does this truly feel like the next step for The Balvenie?”

One of Scotch whisky’s great strengths is that it’s quite tricky to stop everything and change course – from a production perspective, there’s a limit to how effectively we could chase fads, even if we wanted to! At the end of the day, every distillery in Scotland is in the same boat. If claiming a particular ‘innovation’ means rush-releasing immature spirit, then what’s really been gained?

If you had to pick a standout Balvenie whisky, what would it be and why?

Our current Forty. It’s so rare to find a whisky that’s reached such a mighty age where the spirit still feels so vibrant and alive. The experience isn’t really about the wood at all – four decades of age has really concentrated that signature Balvenie honey into something profound and powerful. A dramatic, emotional whisky.

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