Bottlings within the Prima & Ultima series are drawn from casks: the first or last of their kind. Each release of Prima & Ultima is carefully curated by one of Diageo’s Master Blenders. This year, Dr Craig Wilson has hand-selected eight unique and personal bottlings for the collection. With his heightened knowledge of Diageo’s exceptional Single Malts, this third release is a curation of mature whiskies that beckon a flavour and history rarely encountered, each spirit he has personally marked as outstanding.

Dr Craig’s experience spans more than 13 years, but more recently he has played a fundamental role in the restoration of the Brora spirit and overseeing new releases from Port Ellen. His expertise in nurturing and restoring the rare spirits from two of Diageo’s most magnificent whiskies has led him to develop an unparalleled knowledge of the distilleries and their casks. As a celebration of his work, Dr Craig has selected an incredibly rare bottling from both Brora and Port Ellen to feature in this release, a first for Prima & Ultima.

Also, for the first time, this release offers the opportunity to discover a Single Malt that is both ‘a first’ and ‘a last’, the first The Singleton of Glen Ord 1987 vintage and the only one ever to be released from the last casks that remain. It also includes debut appearances to the Prima & Ultima collection from Royal Lochnagar, a 1981 bottling part of a pioneering experiment at the distillery and a uniquely matured, unusually dark Mannochmore 1990.

Dr Craig takes up the mantle from its two previous curators, Maureen Robinson and Dr Jim Beveridge OBE, both individuals highly respected within the industry with just under 90 years of experience between them. With Dr Craig’s selected bottlings in this third release, the whole Prima & Ultima Collection expands to twenty-four bottles -a beautiful presentation of Single Malts for the world’s growing number of discerning whisky connoisseurs.

Dr Craig said: “It is my honour to present the third release of Prima & Ultima, a collection of our rarest, most precious Single Malt Scotch Whiskies. I have personally selected each whisky with great care, each an exceptional spirit marking a special time in the distilleries’ history and whiskies that I’ve had the privilege to watch mature. I have also selected whiskies from Brora and Port Ellen. In the year we celebrate the Queen’s Platinum jubilee, I have selected the last ever Port Ellen 1980 cask, filled in the year Her Majesty visited the distillery’s maltings. TheBrora bottling is equally as precious, taken from our last ever 1981 cask, making it one of our rarest Brora whiskies of all time.”

Celebrating the defining moments of a lifetime, the third release draws on the theme of ‘A Moment in Time’ and the natural preservation phenomenon of fossils and specimens, allowing us to uncover what was before. To mark this connection, each whisky selected by Dr Craig has been allocated a precious artefact, reflecting the whisky’s story, and is displayed within the accompanying set of 20ml samples provided with each full set.

Only 317 full sets of the Prima & Ultima Third Release are available for purchase, directly through appointed Prima & Ultima agents. The recommended retail selling price for the third release of Prima & Ultima is GBP36,500 (including tax and duty) in the UK. An online registration page is now open until 30th June at www.theprimaandultimacollection.com. for whisky collectors across the globeto register their interest.

Coinciding with this release comes an extraordinary opportunity for collectors across the world to bid on two ultra-rare casks of Brora and Port Ellen which are being sold at auction between Monday 30th May –Tuesday 14th June 2022 in London, United Kingdom. The auction offers up two never to be seen again casks from Diageo’s Casks of Distinction programme, in which Diageo offers exclusive access to purchase individual casks of rare and exceptional Single Malt Scotch Whisky from its unrivalled stocks. Each cask up for auction comes with a bespoke piece of artwork related to the cask and its distillery of origin, from a globally renowned artist. For more information, visit sothebys.com/en.