Rare Malts Selection
This range predates Diageo as it was launched in 1995, when it was first released by United Distillers & Vintners Ltd (UDV). Initially intended to be for the Global Tax Free market, this was quickly expanded when UDV merged to eventually settle as Diageo. Soon you could find the RMS in all good specialist shops. This range shows an interesting look at the very old malts which were available at the time.
RMS creator Mike Collings, created the range with the specific intention that not only would the malts be of "unsurpassed excellence and rarity" but also of a consistency which would become recognised over time. Indeed it did, with also every release winning a medal or achieving at least some form of commendation. From the very outset this was a range of exceptionally high quality, with many malts achieving Gold medals at the International Wine and Spirits Competition over the years. Most notable is probably the Glenury Royal 1971 23 year old, winning the overall trophy for Best Single Malt over twelve years old and the Ian Mitchell Memorial Trophy for Most Outstanding Single Malt Scotch Whisky in 1996.
Plenty of awards then, but what does the range actually consist of? Here are some quick stats for you:
- Releases from 1995 - 2005
- 121 releases from 36 distilleries
- Whiskies ages range from 18 to 30 years old
- Predominantly for Europe, but some releases for North America and South Africa.
Between 1995 and 1998 the Malts were released twice a year, with one in Spring and two joint releases in Autumn, one for each market. This supply of high quality aged stocks could not be maintained and eventually the releases became annual, from 1999 onwards. This Dallas Dhu is from the very first release in 1995 and was in our auction a couple of months ago.
You can tell this Dallas Dhu is from the 1995 releases as there is no bottle number, instead "limited bottling" is printed at the bottom of the label. From 1997 onwards the labels also told us when the whisky had been bottled as well as the distillation year.
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| Port Ellen 1978 22 year old, 60.5% ABV, from the 2000 release |
The iconic blue cartons of the range had always remained the same, albeit with slight variations on the labels as with the bottles over the progression of the collection. However the releases for the North American and South African markets were released as "bottle only" and no cartons were made. Some of the 750ml bottles were released in selected European markets and there are cartons for these bottles.
There are two other packaging styles. The first is unofficial and for 9 versions of malts from RMS which were repackaged into wooden boxes by Dutch retail chain Gall & Gall. This occurred between 1998 and 1999 and was not repeated.
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| Teaninch 1973 23 year old, 57.1% ABV |
The other change in packaging comes from the two releases of 200ml bottles. Two separate packs of these whiskies were released, one in 1995 and one in 1996. This collection is from the second release in 1996 and was in the auction a few months ago.
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| 1996 release of the Rare Malts Collection 5 x 200ml set |
These sets are not often seen on the market any more. We're quite lucky here at SWA because we see these rare bottles on a regular basis, which may give the illusion that they are more readily available than they really are out in the "wilds" of the whisky world!
At one point, a bottle stand in which you could present your 4 favourite 700ml bottles was made and distributed in the UK and France, but this was not made available for a long period of time. There are similar stands available for the Classic Malts collection whiskies from Diageo.
Most of the releases are unique, in that there is no 750ml counterpart to the 700ml releases. One exception to this is the multi award winning Glenury Royal 1971 23 year old 61.3% ABV which was released in 700ml and 750ml bottles. In fact we had bottle number one in the 42nd auction!
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| Glenury Royal 1971 23 year old 61.3% ABV, bottle number 0001 |
The average bottle release was 5,000-6,000 bottles although there were some releases as large as 12,000 bottles. Certainly by some modern release sizes, these are really quite small. For example, the first release of Highland Park's Thor was 19,000 bottles and it's something of a joke in the office that some "exclusive" and "limited" Bruichladdich releases are just 24,000 bottles. (There's a whole separate blog post about release sizes but we'll leave that for another day.)
It seems a real shame that the collection was stopped in 2005, there are some who believe that this halt is merely a hiatus in release and that part two is yet to come. With such a highly acclaimed set of malts, it would be good to see a revival of them in a time when so many distilleries are releasing non age statement whiskies, moving away from being able to put vintages on their whiskies. (And again, there's another post in that too!)
If you want to learn more about the range, I can't recommend the Rare Malts Facts, Figures and Tastes book by Ulf Buxrud enough. He gives a fantastic over view of the range along with analysis of each of the 36 distilleries and the versions of the malts released. But all that reading might make you thirsty, in which case you'll want to come back to Scotch Whisky Auctions to see what we've got to offer. Believe me, there are plenty Rare Malts to choose from. And maybe a few other bottles...
Whatever your whisky preference is, www.scotchwhiskyauctions.com is the place to be on 24th October!
