Diageo Special Releases 2022
Elusive Expressions
This year’s edition of the Diageo Special Releases, created by master blender Dr Craig Wilson and his award-winning team, is a showcase of extremes. It is a range that shows everything from seldom-seen distilleries in their purest light to complex maturations and the most intense versions of familiar spirits.
Each bottle is paired with artwork by Ken Taylor and Kevin Tong, inspired by character of the spirit and stories of the distillery where it was made.
Dive into the Elusive Expressions – there’s a lot to uncover.
Cardhu 16 Year Old
The Hidden Paradise of Black Rock
Cardhu is well-known as an easy-drinking whisky that’s popular in hot countries, and this expression takes that idea and doubles down on tropical flavour. Matured in refill and recharred casks, and finished in Jamaican pot-still-rum casks, it builds on top of Cardhu’s honey-forward character with layers of fruit and toffee.
Clynelish 12 Year Old
The Golden Eyed Guardian
A welcome return to the Special Releases for Clynelish with a whisky that’s not quite what you might expect. While the distillery is more known for bourbon-cask-matured drams, this whisky spent more than two years finishing in oloroso- and PX-sherry casks, adding in layers of dark fruit and spice on top of the trademark waxiness.
Lagavulin 12 Year Old
The Flames of the Phoenix
The remaining mainstay of the range, the yearly release of Lagavulin 12 Year Old is usually an unadorned smoky spirit. However, this time the team has selected casks that showed a higher level of phenols at filling – compounds that indicate smokiness – and also finished some of the vatting in virgin oak for extra spiciness. A very big and smoky dram.
Mortlach
The Lure of the Blood Moon
Mortlach is traditionally a distillery focused on sherry-matured whisky, but this release ignores tradition and goes very modern. It’s made up of whisky finished in a combination of red-muscat-wine and tawny-port casks, as well as a small amount finished in virgin oak. The result layers on red fruit and soft spice, taking the distillery’s rich character in a new direction.
Oban 10 Year Old
The Celestial Blaze
It’s rare to see new Oban bottlings and we thoroughly welcome this one into the fold. Matured first in a combination of refill and new American-oak casks it is then further matured in Amontillado-seasoned casks to bring a refined and restrained sherry character to this very softly smoky and briny dram. Expect creaminess and wine-poached fruit.
Talisker 11 Year Old
The Lustrous Creature of the Depths
The returning star of the past few years, we’ve been waiting to see what tweaks the team have made this year. This time the classic bourbon-cask maturation of Talisker has had some wine-cask maturation added to it, to create a subtle extra layer of fruit and spice.
Singleton of Glen Ord 15 Year Old
The Enchantress of the Ruby Solstice
Glen Ord distillery has been getting a lot of attention recently and it’s great to see a twist on the standard 15-year-old release in the Special Releases. This started out in refill-American and -European oak casks like usual before being filled into wine casks for a long eight-year secondary maturation, giving extra rich, fruity and spicy depth.
Cameron Bridge 26 Year Old
A first entry for Cameronbridge, Diageo’s biggest distillery and one of the biggest in Europe. For its inaugural appearance the team have left the whisky simple and expressive – it has matured in refill American oak casks for its full term. A ‘long and gentle’ maturation as Craig Wilson puts it, just the thing to show off the grain whisky’s sweet and fragrant character.
More Special Releases
The Special Releases have been running since 2001 creating an impressive back catalogue of rare and refined whiskies – you can find more of them below.
Caol Ila 11 Year Old UnpeatedSpecial Releases 2024
£110
(£157.14 per litre)
Benrinnes 21 Year OldSpecial Releases 2024
£340
(£485.71 per litre)
Lagavulin 12 Year OldSpecial Releases 2024
£150
(£214.29 per litre)
Mortlach Midnight DuskSpecial Releases 2024
£235
(£335.71 per litre)
Talisker 8 Year OldSpecial Releases 2024
£84.95
(£121.36 per litre)
Singleton of Glen Ord 14 Year OldSpecial Releases 2024
£130
(£185.71 per litre)