The first Rare Malts Selection single malt whiskies were bottled in 1994 and, as with the Manager's Drams and the Flora & Fauna range, this pioneering series of prestige cask strength single malt whiskies was launched while the distilleries were still under the mantle of United Distillers. The creation of Diageo was still a couple of years away.

The Rare Malts whiskies appeared first in Travel Retail before rolling out to world markets. Each bottling was from a single vintage, almost all were at least 20 years old and the vattings were usually a minimum of ten casks, yielding up to six thousand bottles. Soon after the creation of Diageo subsidiary United Distillers & Vintners in 1998, however, the previously abundant Rare Malts releases slowed to a trickle before the series was finally discontinued in 2005. 

Times were changing. The Rare Malts were superseded after 2001, as the best stock from the most desirable distilleries was being earmarked for a new range that featured bespoke packaging and considerably fancier pricetags: the age of Diageo’s Special Releases had arrived. 

The legacy of the Rare Malts Selections remains unarguable. A range that the cynical might denigrate as a simple inventory-tidying exercise by United Distillers or an effort to compete with independent bottlers soon became the finest series of official bottlings in whisky history. One thing is for sure: the Rare Malts series was a shining, seismic, apex moment in the history of Diageo’s single malts. It was lightning in a bottle for single malt whisky fans.