The Classic Six

The Classic Malts of Scotland is a selection of six single malt whiskies, launched and marketed together in 1988 by United Distillers and Vintners which is now owned by Diageo. They are often displayed together in bars and liquor stores, and the marketing has proved quite successful. The six malts are:

 

Whisky	Age	Alc. %	Region
Dalwhinnie	15 years	43%	Highland
Talisker	10 years	45.8%	Isle of Skye
Cragganmore	12 years	40%	Speyside
Oban	14 years	43%	West Highland
Lagavulin	16 years	43%	Islay
Glenkinchie	12 years	43%	Lowland

UDV's regions differ from the more conventional categorisations of Highland (and subregion Island), Lowland, Speyside, Campbeltown, and Islay. The region of West Highland was created to separate between Oban and Dalwhinnie. Talisker is the only distillery on the Isle of Skye, which has never been a whisky region unto itself, but would be in the Island subregion; though this categorisation enabled UDV to include both Talisker and Lagavulin, strongly flavoured malts with strong followings. Campbeltown's association with the distillation of whisky has greatly subsided over the years, leaving merely three working distilleries in the region, none owned by UDV. The Lowlands have fared little better, leaving only four, of which only Glenkinchie is UDV owned.

All six of the "Classic Malts" have released limited edition "Distiller's editions", which are finished in special casks selected by the master distiller at each distillery. Dalwhinnie is finished in Oloroso casks, Glenkinchie in Amontillado, Cragganmore in Port, Oban in Fino sherry from Montilla, Talisker in amoroso sherry, and Lagavulin in Pedro Ximénez sherry.