I’m about to review the very first Kininvie on the blog , a happy moment for me, surely as you can imagine. Kininvie is an odd distillery indeed, a sister distillery to The Balvenie , and actually more a still room than a fully fledged distillery, as it lacks Mash tuns, and gets its mash straight from the Balvenie, to be distilled in its set of stills (3 wash, and 6 spirit).
opened in July 1990 by Janet Sheed Roberts, granddaughter of William Grant. In the intervening 23 years, production has focused solely on blending (Monkey shoulder) so no products were released under the Kininvie name until 2013 when the first batch came into the market (I did not taste that one), and now the 2nd batch is out. The whisky itself is released in half bottled (375ml) and priced at £97.
Kininvie 23, batch #2 , 42.6% , £97 
Nose: Vanilla ice cream topped with ripe orchard fruit, also quite floral, and fresh, with a nice bouquet of spring petals, in full blossom, which goes well with the sweet, wood and spices.
Palate: Creamy and mouth coating from the get go, with some pepper up front, before revealing butterscotch , oak and zingy citrus as well as chocolate covered sugared orange peel candy. Add a pinch of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg and you’ve got yourself an ace! superb stuff.
Finish: Lots of chocolate, wood and orange marmalade. Sweet, yet spicy with some wood spices.
Bottom line:
A cracking 23 year old. A brilliant summer sort of dram, layered and complex with the right balance. Not cheap though, so for VFM you can do better, but a very promising dram from this relatively unknown distillery. Again, a brilliant gift for a whisky lover / geek / aficionado who has everything, and having it bottled as a half bottle is indeed a good move on behalf of W.Grant , so now you can have some, and not shell 200 quid for a full bottle.
Score: 89/100
official sample provided by W.Grant & sons.
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