ULTRA RARE! Special Release Whiskeys 2022
Since 2001, each year, a new cask-strength collection of around eight to ten limited edition Special Releases from Diageo makes whisky headlines as a proven and revered set of releases that continues to be sought after. Usually a single malt, sometimes a single grain or a blended malt, each one introduces a world of flavour, rarity and desire beyond the everyday – an opportunity to explore and enjoy the diversity of the Scotch Whisky world.
Chosen with immense care by some of the world’s finest whisky craftsmen and women from the world’s largest reserves of Single Malt Scotch Whisky, the Special Releases can include small offerings from fabled closed distilleries and supreme examples of the less well known, as well as unusual expressions of more familiar names, giving these distilleries opportunities to try something new or different from their trademark expressions.
They all come from a unique collection of distilleries that is the envy of the whisky industry. No other brand owner has the plethora and range of whisky stocks and distilleries available to them to release multi-distillery collections such as The Special Releases. Diageo has over 30 distilleries’ stocks to draw from when creating the revered Special Releases collection. Each release is a limited edition which is proven to drive collectability and reinforce perceptions of rarity.
Scroll down to explore 6 of these limited release whiskeys that we have in stock:-
Cameron Bridge 26YO Special Release Scotch Whisky 700mL
Silky and smooth-flowing in texture with an intense butterscotch- sweet taste, which mellows into rich caramel toffee. A balancing spicy-dry, oaky intensity appears mid- palate.
Adding water softens the honeyed sweetness to creamy-smooth Swiss milk chocolate, with just a little salt mid- palate. Gentle spice now holds the sweetness in check.
Cardhu 16YO Special Release Scotch Whisky 700mL
A creamy-smooth and full texture, the taste erupting with sweet flavour. Tingling on the tongue, the fruity and malty sweetness behind this suggesting home- made rum toffee and more exotic hints of spiced pineapple and green banana, made more appetising still by spicy and drying, bracingly crisp, clean oak.
A dash of water creates a delightful and even smoother texture, still strong in peppery spice.
Clynelish 12YO Special Release Scotch Whisky 700mL
A very smooth, mouth-filling texture introduces a lively taste that is rich and wine-sweet overall, the palate well-balanced by snarling peppery, oaky spice.
A little water enhances the sweetness, steers the smoothness of the texture towards waxiness and rounds the flavours, which soon give way again to spicy heat.
Oban 10 YO Special Release Scotch Whisky 700mL
The texture is soft and creamy-smooth, while the taste shines brightly with wine-fruit notes that carry hints of sweet violet and spiced plum.
The fruit is balanced by a lively spiciness first met as saltiness mid- palate, then in a blazing dash of chili pepper. A little water softens the taste, taming the spiciness without altering the balance overall.
Talisker 11 YO Special Release Scotch Whisky 700mL
Smoothly oily in texture, while the taste is gloriously sweet throughout and smoky-spicy, with a distinct fruity hint, all of which evokes an orchard seen through smoke and sea mist.
A fine salty balance in the middle leads the spiciness on into a powerful chili pepper catch as you swallow. With a drop of water, the sweet fruitiness and saltiness come into their own.
Lagavulin 12YO Special Release Scotch Whisky 700mL
The smooth lightly oily texture shines with sweet richness; the taste is sweet to start, then takes off with a soaring lemony acidity and a sprinkling of sea salt to add freshness.
Mid-palate the fire dries the taste, which flies still higher now in its salty-smoky intensity. A dash of water rounds and sweetens but it’s the smoke that dominates.