Tag: Dalwhinnie

Diageo Special Releases 2020

The Diageo “Special Releases” range is keenly awaited each year, and the latest collection (2020) is now being made available to markets around the world.

[Update: If you’re looking for info on the Diageo Special Releases for 2021, see our more recent post here.]

Whisky & Wisdom has attended the launch events for the Special Releases range in previous years, but with COVID still largely preventing such public events, a special media kit was prepared for this year’s range.  The box – a very attractive and well-presented affair, it must be said – contained samples of the eight releases.

Diageo Special Releases - the media box

The idea behind the Diageo Special Releases range is to present and showcase whiskies from selected distilleries that differ significantly from the usual or familiar form that we associate with those distilleries.   We thus see things like unpeated releases from Islay distilleries; or releases with significant age statements that aren’t normally available; or releases given special cask treatments or finishes; or simply releases from closed or rarely seen distilleries.   There’s always something for everyone, and each year’s Special Releases range showcases a diverse spectrum of flavours and also price points.

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The most beautiful distilleries in Scotland

It’s a question often asked:  Which is the most beautiful distillery in Scotland?  But if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, how does one assemble a definitive list of Scotland’s most beautiful distilleries that adequately captures all the subjectivity from amongst the whisky community?  And when it comes to distilleries – which are nothing more than factories to produce alcohol – what metrics do we use to define beauty?  Is it architectural flair?  Aesthetic lines and symmetry?  And how do we compare architectural and construction fashions across timelines?  Many would suggest that the classic, quaint, stone-built distilleries of the Victorian era have a romantic advantage, but purists are correct to assert there is beauty in the functional architecture of modern behemoths such as Roseisle or Dalmunach.

There are further complexities:  How much does the surrounding environment impact our assessment of a distillery’s beauty?  For example, Lagavulin is, in reality, just a clump of relatively plain, white-washed buildings nestled together.  However, put them in a coastal location on the water, add some colour from the local vegetation, and throw in the ruins of a medieval castle nearby for good measure, and you have one extremely beautiful distillery.

A further difficulty arises when you look at the many distilleries that have been bastardised over the years with unsympathetic expansions, often resulting in clashing, jarring visuals.  There are many such examples that mix their original old-world Victorian charm with 1960’s modernism or 1970’s brutalism.   

Following a poll that Whisky & Wisdom ran on Twitter a few weeks ago to gauge public opinion, we offer you – in no particular order – the following list of Scotland’s most beautiful distilleries:

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