When The Balvenie first began developing its Stories Collection – a range of single malts celebrating special moments and craftspeople at the Speyside distillery – it was clear that this project needed a design philosophy to match.
Each limited-edition expression represents a chapter in The Balvenie story, like when Malt Master David C. Stewart MBE began experimenting with cask finishing in the early 1980s, or how Malt Master Kelsey McKechnie began using twice-toasted white American oak barrels for a sweeter finish.
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With such characterful stories, it was decided each would need an individual artwork for its label.
By chance, a book landed on the desk of The Balvenie’s global brand team. On its cover was a depiction of a Scottish landscape by artist and print-maker Andy Lovell. From that moment, a partnership was born.
‘It’s funny sitting in the studio when I’m working on these stories,’ says Lovell, whose first task was to spend time at the distillery. ‘I have this memory of the place, the smell – it’s a very aromatic place – and of all the characters I’ve met.’
During his visits, Lovell would sketch in different vantage points, watching the processes involved at The Balvenie, many of which have changed little since 1892.
‘Going to the cooperage was particularly memorable,’ recalls Lovell, whose work has appeared for a variety of clients and titles, including ELLE Decoration. ‘I spent time drawing and photographing the coopers performing their work. It was a joy to describe their craft visually through expressive monoprinting, using a dextrous finger and cloth to produce the artwork for The Sweet Toast Of American Oak.’
Lovell’s print-making style mirrors the tactile craft of making whisky. ‘The stories resonated with my own work,’ says Lovell. ‘They have a depth to them if you dig under the surface, just as there’s a depth to the marks and nuances of print-making.’
In 2021, Lovell spent ten days as one of The Balvenie’s official Makers in Residence, where he experimented with a portable printing press making monotypes at the distillery’s Warehouse 41 and on location in nearby hills, before printing them in the back of his van.
‘My time in Dufftown was valuable and rewarding artistically,’ he says. ‘These techniques have become part of the way I work.’
The Balvenie’s latest release in the Stories Collection, A Rare Discovery From Distant Shores, tells the tale of how John Barrett brought some special Caroni rum samples to David C. Stewart’s attention in The Balvenie’s Sample Room in Glasgow.
‘I’d recently been there for a visit,’ recalls Lovell. ‘David took me through an unassuming door and it felt like I was in a Damien Hirst installation – thousands of bottles all carefully notated. To see the paraphernalia of the chemistry – the beakers, the flasks, the pipettes – to create the alchemy was fascinating.’
‘What I took away from Glasgow was this pattern of glassware, the refraction of light around the room and the ease with which David sat within that space,’ he says, ‘which I explored through low-fi printmaking – rubber-stamps – to capture the repeated pattern of the bottles and monotypes to evoke the atmosphere.’
Alongside these images, a QR code on the presentation tube directs drinkers to an audio version of each story, told first-hand by the craftspeople. You can also listen to them on The Balvenie podcast.
‘I knew nothing about whisky before but it’s been a fascinating journey,’ says Lovell. ‘As an image maker, you relish interesting problems to solve. With such a rich visual landscape at The Balvenie there’s always a compelling way forward.’
Discover your favourite story at thebalvenie.com
Video Courtesy of Andy Lovell
