There’s a tongue-and-cheek nature to Diageo’s Orphan Barrel Collection that often places them in conflict with whisky geeks. The original concept included barrels from distilleries that have long-since stopped producing whisky. At least, that was the concept. But whisky geeks quickly sought after the origins of the whisky, and found that sometimes they weren’t orphaned, and sometimes they weren’t accidents.
Read MoreThe Gifted Horse is the latest release under Diageo's Orphan Barrel umbrella. Each previous release was based on old stock of barrels that Diageo procured and bottled. In this case, though, Diageo was offered an accidental mix of barrels.
Read MoreTelling paragraph from Oliver Klimek, on Diageo placing blended scotch above single malts:
Diageo ... tirelessly emphasizes the importance that blended whisky has for them, that single malts are more ore less regarded as a by-product of blending and that they are not really relevant for their business.
The entire piece is excellent, and I couldn't agree more. While Diageo owns some of the more popular names in single malt scotch, the blended whisky of Johnnie Walker is the star of their Scottish portfolio. Most Diageo's single malt distilleries are hidden behind the Discovering Distilleries website that looks more like an after-thought from 2002.
Few of the distilleries have an interest write-up online. I'm thankful that the Diageo brand group in Canada was incredibly helpful when writing The Whisky Cabinet. I was able to get the background information needed for the book.
