Raw Craft with Anthony Bourdain

Episode Six, Season One Finale: Scotland

“This is where Single Malt Scotch Whisky is made: a tradition honed to a science by hundreds of years of experience, but also one that will forever remain to me, shrouded in mystery.” – Anthony Bourdain, May 2015

“The term handcrafted gets thrown around a lot these days.  It’s become a movement – a trend – that can obscure the passionate folks who actually make amazing things by hand.” Over the last six months, The Balvenie Single Malt Scotch Whisky and Anthony Bourdain embarked on a journey to celebrate some of America’s most talented craftspeople in Season One of the engaging online film series, Raw Craft.  

Throughout Season One of Raw Craft, over 2.6 million viewers on the Raw Craft YouTube channel have gained a glimpse into the lives and works of committed artisans at the forefront of the American craft movement. In each of the five previous episodes, Bourdain was guided through their process step by step, uncovering unique insights into the dedication and sacrifice required to produce everyday items by hand. John Truex and Liz Seru, Frank Shattuck, Steve Goodson, Bob Kramer, and Andrew Hoyem: these are the crazies, the folks who do things the old school way, and see it as the only way.

The inspiration behind Raw Craft is The Balvenie’s own longstanding alliance with craft itself, a result of the distillery’s dedication to the five rare crafts of whisky making, which allows it to achieve The Balvenie’s distinctive taste and exceptional quality. The Balvenie still grows its own barley, uses traditional floor maltings, employs a team of coopers to tend its casks, a coppersmith to maintain its stills, and has in its service the most experienced Malt Master in Scotch whisky history, David Stewart, who has given over 50 years of dedication to his craft. In the final episode of the season, Anthony Bourdain travels to Scotland to meet a handful of these devoted craftsmen, delving into the mystery behind the world’s most handcrafted whisky.

On a picturesque sunny day over the Scottish Highlands, Bourdain heads to The Balvenie Distillery to visit the kind of people he loves, craftsmen, who, along with generations before them, have been keeping tradition alive since 1892. There to greet him are the coopers, coppersmiths, and malt men, along with Malt Master David Stewart, who for decades have day in and day out tended to the barrels, stills, malt and mash, carrying on traditions with the rare skills ingrained into the muscles of their hands.

Very serious about what they do without taking themselves too seriously, they welcome Bourdain over a pint in the small town of Dufftown, excited to show him exactly what it is that makes The Balvenie and its family of craftspeople so special. For them, it isn’t about prestige, fortune, or fame, but about creating something as many of their fathers and grandfathers did before them and doing it impeccably.

There is a science behind the making of whisky, but to the passionate bunch at The Balvenie, it’s truly more of an art form. Many meticulous hands aid in this process, all of which care deeply about the quality of the end product that the sum of their parts create. Even with all of their experience, the modest team still believes that there’s a strong element of magic at work in the whisky-making process. Bourdain likens it to making his daughter’s favorite birthday treat, Yorkshire pudding: “Anytime I make Yorkshire Pudding and it works – that’s magic.” Whether it’s magic, science, art, or all three, just like all of the craftspeople Bourdain has had the pleasure to get to know during this season of Raw Craft, the team at The Balvenie simply loves what they do.