By buying Inver House in 2001, Thailand matched the Japanese invest-
ments in a single blow, doubling the East Asian involvement in the Scotch
whisky industry. Through Inver House, there are now five more distilleries
that are being kept alive with funding from Asia; Balblair, Balmenach,
Knockdhu, Old Pulteney and Speyburn.
 
Comparing the two lists of acquisitions, I'd have to say that the Japanese
seem to have chosen more carefully. Most of these 'Thailand' distilleries
haven't produced a lot of malts that made a lasting impression on me...
Well, at least no so far - but I guess improvements in production policy
won't be felt on our shelvesfor a few years.

Inver House bought Balblair distillery in 1996. Inver House Distillers Ltd.
were themselves bought in 2001 by 'Pacific Spirits', part of the so-called
'Great Oriole Group'. This group is in turn controlled by a businessman from
Thailand; Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi.
 
During the 1990's, most of the Asian investments came from Japan.
The three major Japanese investors in Scotland are Suntory (owning
Auchentoshan, Bowmore and Glen Garioch through Morrision Bowmore),
Nikka (owning Ben Nevis) and Takara Shuzo Okura (owning Tomatin). That
means that by the turn of the millennium, 5 out of the circa 85 remaining
active distilleries in Scotland were under Japanese control. Banzai!

Balblair was founded in 1790 by one John Ross, but the
oldest buildings at today's distillery date from the 1870's.
Ownership of Balblair was in the hands of Andrew Ross &
Son by the end of the 19th century and had been transfer-
red to Alex Cowan & Co in 1896. The Balblair distillery was
closed during World War I in 1915 and it wasn't revived
again until 1947, after the end of the second World War.

In 1949 Balblair was taken over by R. Cumming & Sons, a
subsidiary of Hiram Walker-Gooderham & Worts Ltd from
Canada. They expanded the number of stills at Balblair
from two to three. Only two of the stills are used regularly.

The Japanese have a broader 'portfolio' as well, including Lowland and Islay malts.
The Inver House distilleries are located in Speyside (Balmenach, Knockdhu and
Speyburn) and in the Northern Highlands (Balblair and Old Pulteney). I don't know
if the more nortnern location of Old Pulteney has something to do with it, but most
of the expressions I tried had a little more power and character than bottlings from
its relatively southern cousin, Balblair.
 
A generous glass of Balblair is nothing to be scoffed at either, mind you...
None of the expressions I've tried so far made my heart really flutter, but then again
I haven't tried a bad Balblair either so far - all scored around average in my book.
I should be able to tell more about Balblair after some further research...

1) Balblair is one of the oldest Scottish distilleries still in operation.
Just a handful of other distilleries in Scotland were founded before 1790, including Bowmore and Strathisla.
Well, at least that's what they claim - the records from these days are often quite vague...

2) Although Balblair 'officially' has three stills, the oldest and smallest one isn't used anymore.

3) Do you know of any more trivial trivia about Balblair?
Why don't you drop me a note so I can share it with the rest of the whisky world through this page?

I'm afraid that most of the Balblairs I've tried were bottled in the 1990's - so those particular batches and expressions will be hard to find nowadays. One official bottling that's readily available these days is the 16yo.
Here are my notes for two relatively recent batches;

Balblair 16yo (40%, OB, Bottled +/- 2000, 70cl)
Nose: Amazing development - very distinctive. A little pepper. Clove. Nutmeg?
Furniture wax. Hint of soap. Spicy. Fresh and old fruit. Quite entertaining, actually.
Taste: Flat start - malty, then bitter. Sweeter and nuttier later on. Someting fishy.
Smoke. Pinch of salt. Tannine without the grapes. Ultra-dry wood.
Score: 76 points - but I guess I expect a little more from a Northern Highlander?

Balblair 16yo (40%, OB, Bottled +/- 2005)
Nose: Mild sherry, sweet and fruity. Beeswax? Faint spices in the background. Very pleasant indeed!
Later on I got oatmeal and warm milk. I like the fact that it develops, but I'm not crazy about the direction.
Taste: Smooth and sweetish, growing grittier in the centre. Feels a bit rough and grainy. Fruits. Hint of liquorice?
It falls apart in the finish - a little bitter, like burnt coffee beans. Could this be a blend or an Irish whiskey?
Score: 78 points - an enjoyable nose (subtle but still lower 80's) but the palate keeps it below the 80's.

Here are my notes on some of the other Balblair expressions...

Balblair NAS (70 Proof, Gordon & MacPhail, Bottled 1970's)
Nose: Lots of sherry. Antiquity. Chocolate. Furniture polish. Lemon. Salt. Organics.
What a lovely rich profile! Based on the nose alone this would surely reach the upper 80's.
Taste: Old cold tea. Not much else I could pick up - or if I did I didn't make notes of it...
Nice enough, but just not very interesting. Still a very good dram, mind you!
Score: 81 points - the palate pulls the score down to the lower 80's.

Balblair NAS 'Elements' (40%, OB, Bottled +/- 2001, 70cl)
Nose: Light sweetness. Heather honey. Citrussy and malty. Raspberries! Toffee & Spices.
More 'coastal' and spicier after a few seconds, but the fruity/sweet undertone remains.
Hints of smoke, salt and peat. Chloride and dust. A little spirity with very soft sherry overtones.
Oily with a fair dash of peat. Some smoke, chloride and dust. 'Coastal'.Licorice root. Strawberries?
Taste: Ooh - that's a pity. Not as good as the nose. Clean with a hint of smoke. Sweetish, malty.
A tad too bitter in the finish; slightly metallic. Sweet and rough, with strong pear impressions.
A hint of peat; gritty with a tingle on the tongue. Smooth with apple overtones. Gingerbread?
Score: 74 points - I'm afraid the palate keeps it just below average.

Balblair 10yo (40%, Gordon & MacPhail, Bottled 1980's, 5cl)
Nose: Oily. Wet wood. Very faint hint of peat. Not very expressive but quite unique.
Taste: Sweet, malty and woody. I absolutely love the tannins in the (ultra dry) finish.
Score: 70 points - sorry, I couldn't get any more from my quarter of a 5cl miniature.

Balblair 10yo (40%, Gordon & MacPhail, Bottled +/- 1992, 70cl)
Nose: Furniture polish? Intruiging fruity notes. Lots of character, but it drops off quickly.
Taste: Soft, smooth and sweet. Toffeeish. Slightly bitter. Dark chocolate in the finish.
I didn't find a lot of individuality, but it's very nice for everyday dramming.
Score: 77 points - above average; a good sipping whisky.

Balblair 21yo 1975/1997 (56,5%, Signatory Vintage, Cask #7275, 655 Bottles)
Nose: Another light and 'bourbony' malt - but it has much more 'volume' than the Glenury Royal.
Soon spices and organics emerge; nice. Strike that - very nice! Whiff of peat after adding water.
Taste: Quite drinkable at cask strength, although it grows very hot and dry towards the finish.
Fruity in the centre with a faint hint of smoke or peat in the background. Loses point in the finish.
It seems even more fruity after adding some water. And once again I seemed to detect a little peat.
Score: 82 points - very interesting but in the end it's a little too hot, dry and bitter in the finish.
The surprising pinch of peat keeps it the eighties, though - and interesting experience.
 

These were not all the (official and independent) expressions of Balblair I've tried over the years.
My Track Record used to contain a complete overview of all the single malts I've tried, but when I passed the 2000 malts mark (and the list wouldn't fit on two separate HTML pages anymore) I gave up. My Liquid Log still contains my tasting notes on most malts I've sampled and scored - but finding notes on a specific expression could be tricky. You might want to use the search box at the top of this page for that. The mAlmanac now contains personal selections of the best and the worst single malts I've tried so far - as well as the ones with the highest 'Bang-For-Your-Buck' value.

But those are all just my own, purely personal opinions. On Serge's distillery profile on Whiskyfun you can find another perspective on the distillery. Check out the Malt Maniacs Monitor on Malt Maniacs for my scores on all expressions I've tried so far - and those of almost all the other certified malt maniacs as well. The Malt Maniacs Matrix contains a few thousand single malts that were sampled and scored by at least four different malt maniacs, so you can compare our individual opinions.