I’m not allowed to tell anyone about it until one week from today, on Friday, September 4th. Maybe someone will leak it out sooner, but I will honor their request.
Anyone want to take a guess what it is?
Make sure you visit here next Friday for the details.
They’re bringing Royal Lochnagar back to the US?
Hopeful guess: Flora & Fauna series coming to the US?
Daydreamy guess: The new classic malt series will all be under $50? (Ha, just kidding).
More realistic guess: A new set of 40 year old Brora and Port Ellens for $23,000 each, packaged in a beautiful custom made crystal decanter with a personalized autograph from every person who touched the barrel.
I think Sku’s right, or maybe they’re bringing Glen Wonka 100 into the country!
They’re ditching their “large markets only” distribution philosophy so folks in small markets will have access to their malts?
Slim Chance.
Oh, no, I’m confused. That’s a new offering from the Red Hook Brewery.
I’ll tune in next Friday to learn the answer to this mystery, but I won’t hold my breath that I’ll end up with better access to Diageo’s single malts.
I’m guessing the new line-up of special releases. A 30yo Port Ellen probably, and hopefully also a new Brora.
What a tease!
Yeah, it’s like I know what you’re getting for Christmas and I can’t tell you.
If I were a betting man, someone, somewhere is going to leak this out before Friday. It wouldn’t be the first time I was asked to not divulge until a certain date, only to read about it somewhere else sooner.
But, I can promise you that all the details will be here on Friday. Plus, I interviewed the mastermind behind this at Diageo and have some “behind the scenes” info, which everyone here will enjoy.
Available for tasting since October 2009 in Switzerland for the member of the Classic Malts , the first 6 malts from the new Diageo serie „The Managers’ Choice Single Cask Selection“. According to the website “For this new serie of very exclusive malts, our experts have selected amongst the stocks of 27 distilleries a single cask for each distillery. The tasting notes of these 6 malts will be available starting December 2009 on http://www.whisky-news.com
According to two different sources, as part of their Special Release 2009, Diageo will release the following products (under reserve of modification) .
Mannochmore 18yo
Caol Ila unpeated 10yo
Talisker 25yo
Talisker 30yo
Port Ellen 30yo
Brora 30yo
Lagavulin 12yo
According to one source, the price of the Port Ellen should be higher than the previous bottling and with limited availability.
Since it’s Diageo nobody cares because it will be coloured, chill-filtered and the packaging will probably have been made in the Far East.
Make your own mind up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ-jJyPnDZI
I know! I know!
Reacting to lackluster sales in their premium products and in anticipation of a continued decline, they’re abandoning the premiumatization (sp??) strategy in favor of a “premium malts for the common” man campaign. Malt whisky prices will be cut by 40% across the board and the slogan will be “now you can finally see what you’ve been missing!”
Diageo has decided to close down all their distilleries, breweries, food shops, etc. They’ve gone completely bankrupt and will be leaving the market entirely to the independents and Pernod.
Many will rejoice. Many more of us will wonder how the hell we’re going to get any whisky anymore.
They’re closing more distilleries in Scotland and Ireland, shutting Guinness, and moving all production to Bangalore.
And according to different sources, the price of the Manager’s Choice will start in the 200€/£150 range, with some bottles significantly higher for malts apparently aged between 9 and 12 years….
Well, it’s good to see no one has lost their sence of humor.
Do you have any other ideas about what is going to happen?
My guess – - They are buying LVMH portfilio and will bring Glenmorangie, Ardbeg and Ardmore under the umbrella.
Spiced Johnnie Walker #10?
Check out http://www.whiskynotes.be/ for a possible answer.
They are going to release some young “non-age statement” expressions and charge a lot of money for them.
Wait, everyone’s already doing that.
Sorry…
@Chap
Glen Wonka went out of business just a few weeks ago. Maybe the victim of their success.
Their 100yo was too low priced to make any profit.
Their last expression: “the eBay edition” went so fast, that the eBay servers had trouble to keep up with the demand of people wanting to resell it immediately.
They are sadly missed.
The new Diageo offerings are probably bottles we wish we had the money to buy them.
A while ago I made a deal with myself to only buy whisky at a sensible price and, I think, the new bottles are way beyond that.
They’re going to start making whisky in the Scottish embassy in Tiawan.
John M.
At least that is Scottish territory, so it is conforms to the SWA rules!
Now we know what the hype is called……
…
Neil was close. They have discovered how to produce mature whisky ultra fast at Roseisle. A little loophole in the Scotch Whisky Order 1990 means that they can call it “Scotch Whisky” if it has been aged for 7 months and 3 days in a warehouse in Burghead. (Burghead was missed off the geographical boundaries in the 1990 Order by an ignorant dunderheid in the Scottish Office.)
They can now close down all their distilleries and transfer production exculsively to Roseisle, saving themselves a small fortune in production costs. In so doing, they can undercut EVERYBODY else. They are going to invest £53 million in a new deep water port on the Moray Firth, create 1250 jobs and export direct from Roseisle.
They aren’t officially telling anyone, but the long term aim is to declare independence for Roseisle. The name tells everyone that it is an island anyway. In so doing, Diageo will become the world’s 8th largest company by GDP.
Sorry, that should read “8th largest country by GDP.”
Well, I am still keeping my mouth shut, as I was asked to do. But I am really enjoying everyone’s comments…
[...] couple of days ago John Hansel clued us all into something special coming from Diageo regarding their malt whiskys on the 4th of [...]
http://www.themanagerschoice.com/
From whiskynotes.be:
There are interesting rumours that whisky giant Diageo will soon announce a new series of exclusive bottlings named The Manager’s Choice Single Cask Selection. They’ve selected one single cask from each of the 27 distilleries in their portfolio and the first six will be released in October 2009. A new Rare Malts series is born.
I’m not sure which distilleries will be in the first batch, but the picture shows Oban, Teaninich and Mortlach.
Also, as part of their yearly special releases, there will be a Port Ellen 30yo and probably a new Brora 30yo this year.
Prices looks to be about £200-300:
http://www.robbiesdrams.com/products.asp?id=28
Indeed, this is what gathered over the last 24 h (www.whisky-news.com).
Prices are just insane. Who is going to afford a 9 YO Oban for £300?
Where is this going to stop?
And yes, the Port Ellen 30 YO is going to be priced at the same level as this Oban
Make sure that you have deep pocket if you still want to enjoy the new whisky releases….
I’m still honoring the request by Diageo to not mention anything about Diageo’s malt whisky news until Friday. Keep reading away though at the thread here. You can learn a lot.
Uhm in my humble opinion all will depend on the quality of the casks selected, if the bottling will be truly exceptional i do not care that much about the price(I mean I’ll buy just the distilleries i love)and that’s not because I’m a rich man but just because i can pay sometimes for great quality… age is not that important there are awful 40 y.o whiskies, and great ones younger…But as i told before if you ask a lot of money You’ve to offer superquality.
[...] of all the rumors, blog postings, etc., (including my own teaser this past week) on this subject (unauthorized, in many instances), Diageo has given me permission to [...]