Malt of the Month: November 2018
We choose our Malt of the Month to highlight some of the great whiskies of the world. Some are well known, some less so, but you can be certain that if it's our Malt of the Month, then you won't be disappointed. This month we've chosen:
Diageo Special Releases 2017
Please wait Please waitA limited-edition blend that is Diageo in a bottle – it contains whiskies from each of the company’s 28 (or XXVIII in Roman numerals) operational malt distilleries. You’d be forgiven for writing this off as a gimmick but it’s actually a brilliant blend that’s a fitting tribute to both the 28 distilleries and the blender’s dark art.
Collectivum is, as you’d expect, an intensely complex dram that’s worthy spending time over. A fabulous balance of tightly-integrated spice, fruit, sweet, green, smoke and drying notes, which benefits from a drop of water to fully reveal its character.
Collectivum was named Jim Murray's Scotch Vatted Malt of the Year in his 2019 Whisky Bible.
ALLERGEN INFORMATION
This product may contain the following:Tasting Notes
by Billy Abbott(The Whisky Exchange)
- Nose: Chocolate cornflake cakes, red berries and waxy apples to start. Custard and cocoa sit underneath and a sprinkle of candied lemon lies on top.
- Palate: Quite hot to start – it takes water well – with intense cinnamon and nutmeg spiciness. Orchard fruit comes in through the middle, surrounded by lemon and orange. Spice fades and then builds again, with liquorice and hints of smoke at the back.
- Finish: Damp leaves and spice fading to chocolate milk.
- Comment: A densely packed dram that needs time to reveal itself. A drop of water helps – while it's great that the Special Releases are bottled at full strength, this one definitely needs a drop to show its full potential.
Style
Character
The Special Releases
The Diageo Special Releases first started life in 2001, when the newly-formed company started to release special bottlings from its old whisky stocks. This quickly morphed into the hotly-anticipated annual event that we know today, not least due to the regular inclusion of whiskies from closed distilleries and little-seen malts that are often confined to blends.
If you’d like to learn more about their history, read our blog.
Learn More5 Customer Reviews
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Exceptional whisky
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Great whisky
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Hmm, on paper this shouldn't work. There's just too many moving parts as it were. Overly complex, like mixing too many colours together and just getting a rather unlovable colour as a result. BUT.... it does work, it's an absolute belter! Yes, there is a lot going on, there's heat and pepper and ginger and smoke and sweetness and oak and a boat load of other things (so many!) all flapping about and somehow, none of them appear to dominate and squash the other bits. It's a rather unlikely symphony, like a load of musicians from different bands used to playing different types of music but when they get into the studio they just jam, they work. Like M Ozdamar says in their review, this is a bargain at the price. A whopper of a scotch that proves that blends done well are a kind of witchcraft.
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I tried this whisky at the Whisky Show in October 2017, just after tasting the 2017 Brora release. For me the noses of these two whiskies are very similar, which makes this a bargain at this price since the Brora is 10 times the price. On the palate it is also excellent, complex and delicious. Highly recommended.
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Tastes great
