Kininvie Single Malt Whisky

The now mothballed Kininvie distillery actually sat on the grounds of the Balvenie distillery in Dufftown – the whisky capital of the world. Kinenvie was barely a distillery of its own, more just an as extension of the facilities at Balvenie (who owned all of the equipment and the buildings) which was used to mass produce whisky for blends.

The distillery was originally opened in July 1990 and produced for two decades before it was closed in October 2010 (at this point under the ownership of William Grant & Sons). The decision to close the distillery was taken because of the 2007 opening of the owners’ new Ailsa Bay distillery in Girvan. That new distillery has an annual production capacity of around 5 million litres and is capable of meeting the growing demands for the company’s blends.

There were very few single malts released from Kininvie, with the majority of the spirit produced being used for blends such as Grant’s. Only a handful of official bottlings are available, including a special 23 year old expression which was bottled in 1990. With the facility now closed, it seems unlikely there will be many further releases.