Kininvie The First Drops A Quarter Of A Century In Waiting

Kininvie is one of those Scottish distilleries whose name whispered among hard-core drinkers of Scotch as a spirit to try – if you get the chance. It is a rather obscure operation owned by William Grant & Sons, which produced mostly blended whisky on the grounds of the much larger Balvenie distillery.

It has only a couple of 23 year old bottlings to its name so far, but now word is out of a new limited release called Kininvie The First Drops which, literally, is made from the first whiskies laid down when the distillery opened a quarter of a century ago.

As the story goes, according to those behind it, “when the Kininvie Distillery first opened, stillman Kenny McWilliam was one of only three men working the stills. It was back on the 25th June 1990 at 8.45am when the very first liquid was taken off the still by the stillmen and then laid to mature on the 4th July.” The first three casks  barreled up way back then are now being sold as this release, a single cask, cask strength bottling that has been matured in hogshead bourbon barrels and bottled at 61.4% ABV.

Now you may be a little confused when I say three casks above followed by single cask bottling, but that’s because there will be one cask each released into the UK, Taiwan and mainland Europe. This comes out to less than 1,600 bottles worldwide, according to The Spirits Business, each of which will price around £400 (about $605 USD).

“The whisky produced at the Kininvie distillery is of exceptionally good quality,” said Malt Master Brian Kinsman in a statement. “After twenty-five years, we’re delighted that the liquid is now ready and we can release the very first drops of Kininvie, straight from the casks where they have been maturing since the distillery’s first days.”

Joining this release, by the way, is the third batch of the 23 year old expression previously put to market. This offering, according to Tom’s Whisky Reviews, is “liquid taken from casks that were laid to rest in 1991.” It will price at £120 (around $185 USD) and will go into the same markets as the First Drops whisky.