Review - Kininvie Special Release #1 'The First Drops'

The First Drops is the oldest ever expression from the Speyside distillery of Kininvie to be released. It is also the first bottling in the new Special Release series and was launched at a low key event in London back in October.  The whisky is constructed of just three casks from Kininvie's first ever day of production on June 25 1990.  These have been selected by Brian Kinsman, the Malt Master at William Grant & Sons (the owners of Kininvie), and each cask has been bottled at 25 years of age for one of three markets - Europe, Taiwan and the UK. They will all be available through specialist retailers, with the UK bottling the first to market.

Review - Ghosted Reserve

The Ghosted Reserve is the latest limited edition bottling in the Rare Cask Reserves series, which is released by William Grant & Sons.  It is a blended malt.  This term refers to a whisky that is made from two or more single malts blended together.  In this case, there are just two malts included and both are very rare as they come from the Inverleven and Ladyburn 'ghost' distilleries, which have been closed for a significant length of time.  The Ghosted Reserve has been created by Brian Kinsman, the Master Blender at William Grant & Sons.

Have just tried - Grant's 25 years old

We were recently invited to the UK launch of Grant's 25 years old - the oldest expression in the popular brand's range.  It marks the first official time that the bottling is available on British shelves. The event took place in the impressively stocked Wine & Spirits department of the iconic Selfridge's department store in central London.  The launch and subsequent tasting was hosted by Ludo Ducrocq, the Global Brand Ambassador of the Grant's brand.

Grant's Stand Fast - Part 2

Earlier this week, I reported on my recent visit to the new Grant's Family Home and blending facility, which is located at the Speyside distillery of Glenfiddich.  I will not bore you with all of the details again - click here to read my full report of the day - but the premise was simple.  An old book belonging to the brand's owners William Grant & Sons was discovered and it contained the first ever recipe for the Grant's blend, named Stand Fast, which was written by William Grant himself.

The first entry was logged in the book on 11 June 1912 and 100 years later, the Grant's Master Blender (Brian Kinsman) and the Grant's Global Brand Ambassador (Ludo Ducrocq) were going to try and recreate that original blend as closely as possible, with the help of a select group of whisky bloggers and journalists.  I was one of that group and it was a fantastic day and experience.  The guys at Grant's have now put together a short film which charts the progress of the blending session and tells a bit of the background story.  Enjoy ...



In addition, Grant's also interviewed each of the participating group about our thoughts on the day and the recreation of the Grant's Stand Fast blend. Below is my interview where I talk briefly about my experiences of the blending processes, what I learnt and the day in general. Thanks to Liz Yeo from Grant's for allowing me to use these videos here.

- Matt

Grant's Stand Fast - A Recreation of History

It is not often that you get invited to be a part of a historic event so I didn't have to think twice before accepting the recent chance to go up to the Glenfiddich distillery in Dufftown, the whisky capital of the Speyside region.  The invite came from Ludo Ducrocq, the Global Brand Ambassador for the Grant's whisky brand, and what was being offered sounded amazing on paper - the chance to help Brian Kinsman, the Grant's Master Blender, put together a modern day recreation of the first ever version of Grant's blended whisky named Stand Fast.