It was in 1822 when Ballantine was a young lad at the age of 13 & moved to Edinburgh. Here got an apprenticeship in an old town & learnt a trade, a place to live & an ambition. In 1831 Mr Ballantine had created a very successful grocery shop & decided to specialise in Whiskies & hand selected malts. Even though he already had a successful grocery shop, Ballantine wanted to grow even more & was one of the first people to advertise on trains. In 1858 Ballantine was a trusted name in business & had a stock of over 2000 gallons of whisky & by 1883 his stock of whisky increased to 20, 000 Gallons. In 1895, after the death, Ballantine's was given a royal warrant by Queen Victoria. 1910 was when Ballantines, released their first blend whisky & this was followed by the release of Ballantines 17 year old & the legendary Ballantines 30 year old which redefined the whisky market. After the great success of the 3 whiskies already released, Ballantines again wanted to revolutionise the whisky market with the introduction of their cocktail whisky, the 12 year old. 1993 saw the entire collection of Ballantines whisky finished with the introduction of the 21 year old & then end of any new whiskies being produced, but not the end of the Ballantine name.