Balvenie lies in the Convals in Dufftown. The distillery was built by William Grant just below Glenfiddich in 1892, sharing its water source, the Robbie Dhu springs, with its illustrious neighbour. Despite also having the same distiller, Balvenie is hugely different in character. It is one of the few Scotch distilleries to boast in-house floor maltings, utlilising locally hand-cut peat. The floor maltings at Balvenie also supply neighbouring Glenfiddich.

Speyside is an area around the River Spey in Moray and Badenoch and Strathspey, in northeastern Scotland. The term Strathspey usually refers to the upper part of the strath from the source of the Spey down to the capital, Grantown-on-Spey, whereas the anglicised form, Speyside, refers to the area from Grantown-on-Spey to the mouth of the river at Spey Bay. Recently there has been some controversy over attempts to anglicise the name into Spey Valley. The tourist area from the south starts at Dalwhinnie and continues North along the A9 towards Newtonmore, Kingussie, Aviemore and on towards Grantown-on-Spey. Speyside has the greatest number of distilleries of any of the whisky-producing areas of Scotland.