Diageo doesn’t officially announce their annual special releases until the Fall, however, people seem to have gotten pretty good at getting a line on what’s coming down the pike. Last year Whisky Notes posted a preview of the releases in the Spring which proved to be perfectly accurate. Several weeks ago, he did the same for this year’s offerings. I’m going to go ahead and assume this year’s preview is similarly accurate, so without further ado, here’s what the lineup is looking like this year:

First off, there’s the obligatory no-age statement Mortlach, finished in a mixture of red and white ex-Italian wine casks. It’s expected to weigh in at 57.5% abv.

Some pretty straightforward, but high-quality 12 year old, cask strength Lagavulins used to be a fixture of the range, but in recent years, they’ve been mucking around with the casks. This year it’s back to basics with a 12 year old at 57.4% abv, matured in first fill ex-bourbon and refill casks.

Americans generally can’t pronounce Oban, but they seem to have an unnatural love for the stuff. Perhaps that explains the increasing appearance of Obans in the special releases. This time we get a 10 year old at 58% abv, finished in charred American oak barrels that have been seasoned with Oloroso sherry. 

Talisker almost always features in the special releases, as well, and this time around we get another 8 year old (Diageo loves bottling Talisker at 8 years old for the special releases!) at 58.7% abv and finished in stone-spun and lightly re-toasted casks…whatever that means!

Diageo has tried several times over the years to create a brand called “The Singleton,” and through sheer force of will, they’ve now succeeded. No less than three of their larger malt distilleries–Dufftown, Glendullan, and Glen Ord–are now bottled as “The Singleton of (Distillery Name)”. I’m too lazy to check, but I believe last year’s iteration was from Glendullan; this time, it’s Glen Ord’s turn, with a 14 year old expression bottled at 54.7% abv and matured in ex-bourbon casks before “part-finishing” with Pyrenean and Spanish oak ends…which I’m guessing means that they transfer it on to some tired out old bourbon casks where the ends have been replaced with such oak, but I honestly don’t know for sure.

We had the inaugural bottling of Roseisle last (which I recently reviewed); this year we get another almost identical release, another 12 year old with the same by-the-books first fill ex-bourbon and refill maturation and a marginally lower 55.6% abv.

Heading into the home stretch, there’s an 11 year old Caol Ila at 57.3% abv. Unpeated Caol Ila used to be another recurrent theme, but until this one, they hadn’t pulled that rabbit out of the hat much recently. Apparently it has been made with cloudy worts and short fermentations, presumably a swerve away from the distillery’s usual production methods.  Maybe they rented Bill Lumsden for this?

Finally, rounding out the range as we know it for now is an aged Benrinnes–21 years old, and 55.4% abv, it is “double matured” including in American oak and ex-European wine casks.

As for pricing? Well, no MSRPs are attached to these releases at the moment (that usually comes with the official announcement), but my guess is they’ll continue to soar toward the stratosphere. 

My overall thoughts are pretty much the same as they have been in recent years with the special releases: there’s a lot to like here, but there’s a lot to be frustrated with, as well. Even if the prices have gone down a bit from where they were, it remains annoying that Diageo isn’t more forthcoming on the presentation here; I generally regard “natural cask strength” as Diageo-speak for “Unchillfiltered, natural color, cask strength” but I do wish they’d just fucking say it. 

I’d also like to see a little more imagination in the selections. Diageo owns a vast array of distilleries, and they used to showcase the incredible wealth of their portfolio a bit more with bottlings from their more obscure and rarely promoted distilleries. It’s nice that they’re showing us what Roseisle can do, and it’s nice to see a Benrinnes in the mix, but increasingly, they’re just slamming us with overpriced bottles from their most well-known distilleries. I’d love to see a Mannochmore or a Linkwood, or even a Glen Elgin show up again in the special releases.

Finally, I continue to wish they’d take a step back to the tried and true with their cask selection for most of these. There’s nothing remotely wrong with well-made whisky matured in ex-bourbon or ex-sherry wood, and the blitz of arcane finishes is really starting to feel like a gimmick verging on a crutch. In a range of 8, one or two weird casks feels interesting and refreshing; when it’s the bulk of the range, it feels like they’re losing confidence in their ability to produce good whisky that doesn’t need to be dressed up in bizarre casks.