Ballantine’s Limited

Ballantine’s Limited is a no-age-statement blended Scotch whisky from the house of Ballantine’s, one of the world’s largest producers of Scotch whiskies.

It was created by Sandy Hyslop, and was inducted to the Ballantine’s core range of expressions in 2000. Ballantine’s Limited belongs to the super premium category among blended Scotch whiskies.

History of the Ballantine’s Limited

George Ballantine established the Ballantine’s brand as a grocery store in 1827 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and soon made headway into the whisky business. He soon began blending whiskies although the before the Spirits Act of 1860, the blending of malt whiskies with grain whiskies was forbidden by law.

After the Spirits Act of 1860 lifted these restrictions, the business was booming for George Ballantine, and he soon welcomed his three sons into the family business, George II, Archibald and Daniel. They were soon followed by George III, as George Sr. embrace retirement in 1881.

The very first blend created by the company is currently their highest selling and most profitable no-age-statement blend, the Ballantine’s Finest. It was developed in 1901 and has been continuously available since.

Over the years, as business continued to boom for the Ballantine’s brand, the company acquired two new distilleries, the Glenburgie and the Miltonduff, in order to maintain a steady supply of whiskies for their blends.

They also built the largest ever grain distillery in Europe at Dumbarton for their grain whiskies.

A number of Master Blenders became part of the Ballantine’s family over the years, and have left their legacy behind in the form of blends they created for the company. While George Robertson created the Ballantine’s 17-Year-Old and the Ballantine’s 30-Year-Old, Jack Goudy created the iconic Ballantine’s 12-Year-Old.

Jack Goudy’s protégés, Robert Hicks and Sandy Hyslop were trained by him, working closely with him for many years, and being employed as his successors after he retired. Master Blender Sandy Hyslop is credited with creating the Ballantine’s Limited alongside some eccentric new introductions to the Ballantine’s core range, the Ballantine’s Brasil, Ballantine’s Passion and the 
Ballantine’s Hard Fired.

Making Process of the Ballantine’s Limited

Ballantine’s Limited was created by Master Blender Sandy Hyslop, the fifth Master Blender in Ballantine’s 190-Year history. It was first developed sometime around 2000, and contains single malt and grain source whiskies that are extremely rare in nature, and not easily available.

Ballantine’s blends typically contain malt whiskies from Glenburgie, which is their fingerprint malt whisky with some more malt whiskies from their Miltonduff and Glentauchers Distilleries added to the blend.

A considerable proportion of the Ballantine’s blend’s grain whisky content is supplied from the brand’s Strathclyde distillery situated in Glasgow, Scotland. Earlier, Ballantine’s grain whiskies were distilled at the Dumbarton Distillery which was mothballed in 2002.

Alcohol Percentage of the Ballantine’s Limited

The Ballantine’s Limited expression carries an alcohol strength of 43% ABV, slightly higher than the permissible limit for Scotch whiskies which is 40% ABV.

Awards of the Ballantine’s Limited

Master at The Scotch Whisky Masters in the Blended: No Age Statement category in 2018.

Winner of the Scotch Blend of the Year title in Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible for the year 2017.

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