The Collingwood 21yo was a bit of an unusual experiment for this Canadian distiller. Some 50 oak barrels of malted rye were set aside to age at the distillery. In 2013, these were married in a vat with toasted maplewood (just like regular Collingwood whisky), and released in time for Christmas 2013 (where it was ~$60 at the LCBO, I believe).<\/p>\n
I received a blind sample of this whisky from Redditor Devoz. All I knew was that it was a Canadian whisky, bottled at 40% ABV. Here is what I found in the glass, as posted in my blind review on Reddit:<\/p>\n
Blind Tasting Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n Nose:<\/strong>\u00a0 Very sweet, with some corn syrup-like characteristics. Lighter fruits, like pear and green apple, and darker fruits like red plums and raisins.\u00a0 There is a rich creaminess as well, with a slight chocolate note. Not getting much in terms of classic rye notes. No apparent solvent smells, which is a definite bonus. A nice nose, distinctive for a Canadian rye.<\/p>\n Palate:<\/strong>\u00a0 Brown sugar sweetness up front, with the traditional rye baking spices following immediately after (cinnamon and nutmeg in particular). Not too spicy, but more than I expected from the nose. Very sweet and creamy – I can imagine people calling this “smooth”. Darker fruits show up more now (especially figs and raisins).\u00a0 Slightly oaky. Sweet syrup returns at the end.<\/p>\n Finish:\u00a0<\/strong> Medium length. No bitterness, but not much going on here. Basically, somewhat bland and gentle, but in a good way (if that is possible).\u00a0 Light sweetness and a touch of cinnamon persist to the end.<\/p>\n Interestingly, I mistakenly believed that this blind sample was a traditional Canadian rye blend, given that the rye spices weren’t very strong (i.e., I felt it didn’t have enough kick to be a straight rye). There was also a definite sweetness here that I found reminiscent of corn whisky, reinforcing the idea that this was a blended Canadian whisky. Quality-wise, I gave it a slightly below average score, as I didn’t find it particularly complex or interesting for its flavour characteristics.<\/p>\n Given the reveal, I suspect the extended barrel aging (and marrying in toasted Maplewood) introduced greater barrel sweetness, and softened the rye expression. This would be consistent with my “smooth” observation above, as well as the lack of any off notes (which can commonly occur on younger Canadian whiskies). I note that Davin of Canadian Whisky<\/a> particularly emphasized the “smoothness” of this whisky in his review.<\/p>\n Here is how the Collingwood 21yo compares to other aged Canadian whiskies in the Meta-Critic database:<\/p>\n Canadian Rockies 21yo: 8.97 \u00b1 0.24 on 4 reviews ($$) The Collingwood 21yo is clearly at the lower end of the score range for aged Canadian whiskies.<\/p>\n Having re-sampled it after the reveal, I’m not inclined to change my score or overall flavour assessment. I believe this particular expression may be a bit over-aged, as it is soft in flavour overall, and rather gentle on the way out. The relatively low 40% ABV doesn’t help either – this is one Canadian whisky that likely would have benefited from being bottled at higher strength. All that said, it does have a very nice nose.<\/p>\n Personally, I still think its flavour characteristics and overall quality place it more in-line with the following budget-minded ($) whiskies:<\/p>\n Forty Creek Copper Pot Reserve: 8.71 \u00b1 0.41 on 12 reviews ($) While it was certainly an interesting experience to taste and review blind, I don’t think this whisky is necessarily worth seeking out, except for its uniqueness. There are higher quality aged expressions currently available at comparable or lower prices.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is a little odd to be reviewing a limited-run whisky that came out over 2 years ago, as you are unlikely to be able to find this whisky anymore.\u00a0 But I recently had the opportunity to taste and review this whisky blind, which led to some interesting observations (to me, at any rate). It seems that few reviewers want<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,21,146,25],"class_list":["post-1704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whiskies","tag-21yo","tag-canadian","tag-collingwood","tag-rye"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1704"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4832,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704\/revisions\/4832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCentury Reserve 21yo: 8.78 \u00b1 0.21 on 9 reviews ($$)
\nCollingwood 21yo: 8.66 \u00b1 0.45 on 9 reviews ($$$)<\/strong>
\nDanfield’s 21yo: 8.68 \u00b1 0.51 on 11 reviews ($$)
\nGibson’s Finest Rare 18yo: 9.11 \u00b1 0.38 on 10 reviews ($$$$)
\nHighwood Ninety Rye 20yo: 8.94 \u00b1 0.22 on 9 reviews ($$)
\nWiser\u2019s 18yo: 8.71 \u00b1 0.42 on 14 reviews ($$$)<\/p>\n
\nForty Creek Barrel Select: 8.59 \u00b1 0.41 on 13 reviews ($)
\nHiram Walker Special Old Rye: 8.23 \u00b1 0.41 on 9 reviews ($)
\nWiser’s Small Batch: 8.57 \u00b1 0.27 on 11 reviews ($)
\nCanadian Club 100% Rye: 8.54 \u00b1 0.42 on 9 reviews ($)<\/p>\n![\"Collingwood.21\"](\"http:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Collingwood.21.jpg\")
For additional reviews of this whisky, you could check out Jason of In Search of Elegance<\/a>, and Andr\u00e9 and Patrick of Quebec Whisky<\/a>. I certainly concur with them on how soft this rye is – although I don’t personally find it as strongly floral.\u00a0 I am surprised to note that some reviewers find a lot of rye here, like Davin of Canadian Whisky<\/a> and Michael of Diving for Pearls<\/a>. But Beppi of the Globe and Mail<\/a> experiences it as more Cognac-like, which I think is a better relative fit for this whisky.<\/p>\n