Ailsa Bay Single Malt Whisky

A distillery operated by William Grant & Sons, Ailsa Bay is designed to be the malt workhorse of the brand's blends, an investment intended to free up Balvenie to focus on single malt production. Ailsa Bay is on the site of the old Ladyburn Distillery, which is part of the Girvan Complex. Girvan produces grain whisky for the brand, located on the West Coast of the Scottish Lowlands. The sixteen stills at Ailsa Bay are identical to Balvenie's and produce unpeated, lightly-peated, and heavily-peated malts. These stills are married to custom-made condensers, which allow the distiller to vary how the spirit cools after distillation.

This extra level of control allows for a greater variance in the style of malts Ailsa Bay can produce. The Ailsa Bay Single Malt Whisky is the product of the heavily-peated run, and marks this Speyside-based company's entrance to the peated single malt market. It is aged in refill American oak, first fill Bourbon, new oak, and smaller ex-bourbon casks sourced from the Hudson Distillery in New York. Bottled at 48.9% ABV.