Flora and Fauna Whisky: Diageo’s Rare and Ongoing Single Malt Series | Scottish Delight

The Flora and Fauna collection was composed by the company United Distillers (now known as Diageo), in order to promote the products from their different lesser known distilleries to a wider audience. Being the owners of the most popular whisky in the world (Johnnie Walker), the great majority of the whisky distilled goes into blends. The idea with the Flora and Fauna series was to offer the public a chance to try the original single malt spirit, pre-blending. When the series was first released, it had no actual name. The term “Flora and Fauna” was coined by famous whisky and spirits writer Michael Jackson. He came up with the name based on the images printed on the labels, as these images primarily displayed plants and animals. That name stuck, and is nowadays commonly used to describe the whiskies in the series. The series originally started in 1991 and at the time contained 22 different whiskies bottled at 43% ABV. Today, some of these distilleries are still active and producing whisky, though not always under the original Flora and Fauna label, having since moved on to newer official releases. Others come from distilleries that have closed, making their Flora and Fauna bottling one of the few ways to still taste that particular spirit. This is part of why bottlings from now-closed sites like Pittyvaich carry a premium today: no new stock will ever be produced, unlike the whiskies from distilleries still operating.

Mid-Strength flora and fauna whiskies

When the mid-strength whiskies were originally released, most of them were packaged in wonderful wooden boxes. Later subsequent releases of the same bottles saw wood replaced with cardboard, and eventually, the bottles were sold without any boxes at all. Various releases exist, with grey, white and black caps.

• Aberfeldy 15 years old
• Aultmore 12 years old
• Balmenach 12 years old
• Benrinnes 15 years old
• Bladnoch 10 years old
• Blair Athol 12 years old
• Royal Brackla 10 years old
• Caol Ila 15 years old
• Clynelish 14 years old
• Craigellachie 14 years old
• Dailuaine 16 years old
• Dufftown 12 years old
• Glendullan 12 years old
• Glenlossie 10 years old
• Inchgower 14 years old
• Linkwood 12 years old
• Mortlach 16 years old
• Mannochmore 12 years old
• Pittyvaich 12 years old
• Rosebank 12 years old
• Teaninich 10 years old
• Speyburn 12 years old

Cask Strength flora and fauna whiskies

In 1998, a further 9 whiskies were released, at cask strength. These whiskies were originally released with black caps, and came in gray boxes.

• Aberfeldy 17 years old (distilled 1980, bottled in 1997 at 62%)
• Aultmore 14 years old (distilled in 1983, bottled in 1997 at 58.8%)
• Blair Athol 116 years old (distilled in 1981, bottled in 1997 at 55.5%)
• Clynelish 15 years old (distilled in 1982, bottled in 1997 at 57.7%)
• Caol Ila 16 years old (distilled in 1981, bottled in 1997 at 63.8%)
• Dailuaine 16 years old (distilled in 1980, bottled in 1997 at 65%)
• Linkwood 14 years old (distilled in 1983, bottled in 1997 at 59.8%)
• Mortlach 17 years old (distilled in 1980, bottled in 1997 at 63.1%)
• Rosebank 16 years old (distilled in 1981, bottled in 1997 at 63.9%)

2001 flora and fauna releases

In 2001, a further 4 distilleries saw their whiskies added to the Flora and Fauna range. None of these ever came with a box.

• Auchroisk 10 years old
• Glen Elgin 12 years old
• Glen Spey 12 years old
• Strathmill 12 years old

Of all of the above, Speyburn was sold off by United Distillers shortly after the release of the whisky to the series, and thus there are a limited amount of bottles of that expression available, making it highly collectable. A number of the flora and fauna distilleries no longer are owned by Diageo (the successor to United Distillers). Pittyvaich has closed and been demolished, while Rosebank was sold to Ian Macleod Distillers and reopened, with production resuming between 2021 and 2024. Glen Spey remains Diageo-owned and has recently returned to whisky production after a period making gin for other Diageo brands. Especially the cask strength and wooden box editions are becoming harder to find (and therefore more expensive). On a personal note, the series has some delightful whiskies in it. Unfortunately, most of the older ones seem to suffer from the cork drying out, and thus breaking off when attempting to open it. So if you get your hands on some of the more rare ones, have a corkscrew ready, and prepare to fish out pieces of cork from your glass.

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