I was in good company too, legends such as Ian Buxton, Colin Hampden-White, Becky Paskin and Karen Taylor were amongst attendees.

We did not have much time to chitchat as it was straight down to the business of tasting five exquisite Kininvie releases, including one that ‘will never be released’ – although judging by the reception it received by all of us, I would not be surprised if it made it into a bottle somewhere, sometime.

Dubbed ‘the most reclusive distillery in Scotland’, only trade and press are allowed to visit and no photos are allowed to be taken. My only visit to this ‘elite distillery’ thus far was more or less by accident whilst visiting the Glenfiddich distillery just under two years ago.

The Kininvie distillery opened in 1990 by Janet Sheed Roberts – who was the last remaining granddaughter of William Grant – has, to this day, remained largely a family secret. The first Single Malt Scotch Whisky from the distillery to bear the Kininvie name was launched as a 23YO exclusively in Taiwan in 2013 followed by the UK and Nordics in 2014 with Batch 2.

In the press release, Craig Cranmer, the Kininvie’s distillery manager, commented:

“Kininvie is something of a hidden gem, we have cherished and nurtured the casks for 25 years knowing they contained incredible whisky. Now the time is right to share the first drops of our history, straight from the casks where they have been maturing since the distillery’s first days.”

On Saturday 4th July this year, twenty five years to the day, William Grant & Sons marked the Kininvie distillery’s 25th Anniversary by disgorging only three casks that were filled and laid down on the distillery’s very first day on 4th of July, 1990. This treasured liquid has gone into creating the highly anticipated Special Release #1 that was released last week.

Three casks have been bottled, numbers 8 (going to Taiwan), 20 (going to Germany) and 21 (going to the UK) and the interesting thing here is that the Grant family typically keep the first forty casks of every new distillery’s first run as family heirlooms but in this case have released some of the lower numbers.

The bottle will be priced at £400 per 35cl which is quite a bold price for the bottle size, although I understand the viewpoint of William Grant & Sons.

They were refreshingly honest about their approach to pricing and the secondary market, detailing out the commercial reasons for the pricing with a lovely line; “there is a sense of good things come in small packages, these are precious little things.”

My honest opinion? I think its expensive for the age but when you factor in the story, the elite nature of this distillery and the single cask nature I am tempted… I just hope some of the bottles get opened and enjoyed, not just bought for investing and whatnot.