Kininvie Hazelwood Reserve 17 Years Old 1990

Kininvie is one of Speyside's most elusive distilleries, built by William Grant & Sons in 1990 on the Balvenie site at Dufftown, the third of their trio with Glenfiddich and Balvenie. It was made to supply malt for blends rather than to be bottled alone, so single malt releases are rare and were branded Hazelwood, after the home of Janet Sheed Roberts, William Grant's granddaughter. This 17 year old was distilled in 1990, the distillery's first year, and bottled in 2008 as a Hazelwood Reserve, an outturn of 500 bottles.

Kininvie has no mash house of its own, its wash piped some 200 metres from Balvenie, and makes a light, floral, fruity Speyside spirit. Matured in Oloroso sherry, the wood pulls this scarce malt towards dried fruit.

Bottled at its natural cask strength of 52.5%. The Oloroso gives dried fruit, melanoidins reading as fig and raisin, with tannins adding a walnut dryness over the floral spirit. A rare single malt from a distillery that hides in plain sight.