DIAGEO FIRST AND LAST COLLECTIONS

 Diageo prima and ultima collection

Editions one and two

THE FIRST ONE: JULY 02 2020

Diageo has unveiled a new series of collectable single malt Scotch whiskies: the Prima & Ultima Whisky Collection. The eight bottles of Whisky that make up the collection are worth a staggering £20,000 ($24,600 USD).

Prima & Ultima mean the “first and last.” The collection comprises casks chosen from various Diageo distilleries, including Caol Ila, Lagavulin, Mortlach, Port Ellen, and the Singleton of Dufftown. Johnnie Walker's master blender Dr Jim Beveridge OBE chose the eight single vintage malts that make up the new series’ first range.

It’s understandable why some whisky lovers are beginning to feel a little cynical about the recent slew of old and rare releases from some of Scotch whisky’s most venerable distillers, boasting five- or even six-figure price tags. The industry’s current penchant for indulgent packaging and the tendency to see such releases as works of art has become a bone of contention for many, with calls from some quarters for a refocus on whisky as a drink, rather than an asset or investment.

This contemporary context makes it especially pleasing to be presented with a release quite as unquestionably ‘liquid-first’ as Diageo’s Prima & Ultima Collection. Perhaps more so than any other similar Scotch whisky release in recent years, these whiskies have been chosen on the unique merits of the spirit – not just the age statement. Each shines a light on distillery style, the development of and difference between various maturation techniques, and the careers of the industry’s most experienced whisky makers. The packaging, while undeniably premium and attractive, is nevertheless relatively simplistic and functional, playing second fiddle to the liquid inside. Whether it be a cask filled on the first day of distillation, a pioneering experiment, the end of a significant period in a distillery’s history or simply the last drops of something special, each bottle is a snapshot of a unique moment in time; for example, the Cragganmore was the last whisky Diageo ever made on coal-fired stills.

                   

The first Prima & Ultima Whisky Collection includes:

• Caol Ila 1984 (35 years old, 50.8% ABV, aged in a refill European oak butt, 499 bottles)
• Clynelish 1993 (26 years old, 49.8% ABV, aged in refill American oak casks, 941 bottles)
• Cragganmore 1971 (48 years old, 43.7% ABV, aged in a first-fill ex-Sherry butt, 352 bottles)
• Lagavulin 1991 (28 years old, 50.1% ABV, aged in refill American oak casks, 1,013 bottles)
• Mortlach 1994 (25 years old, 55.1% ABV, aged in a first-fill Pedro Ximénez cask and oloroso-seasoned European oak butt, 389 bottles)
• Port Ellen 1979 (40 years old, 51.2% ABV, aged in a refill European oak butt, 436 bottles)
• Singleton of Dufftown 1988 (30 years old, 48.8% ABV, aged in refill American oak casks, 469 bottles)
• Talisker 1988 (31 years old, 51.4% ABV, aged in refill American oak casks, 721 bottles)

Only 238 complete sets were available for release via online registration. The first set of the series was auctioned off for charity via Sotheby’s, featuring Beveridge’s signature on each bottle. 

THE SECOND ONE: AUGUST 05 2021

This release consists of eight limited single malt Scotch bottlings from the Auchroisk, Brora, Convalmore, Glendullan, Lagavulin, Linkwood, Mortlach, and Talisker distilleries. 

How limited, exactly? The expression with the largest batch of bottles clocks in at 1081. And the smallest is just a third of that, at 382 bottles. This is a selection of very special Single Malts – some that have never before seen the light of day and others that are the fleeting and final examples of their kind. Each bottling shares a glimpse into the history of Scotch Whisky.

Launched in mid-2020, the first Prima & Ultima Collection was curated by Johnnie Walker master blender Dr Jim Beveridge OBE and comprised eight whiskies which illustrated meaningful periods of the whisky maker’s time in the industry. For 2021, the arduous task of selecting the whiskies fell to 40-year Diageo veteran Maureen Robinson. The third line-up will be chosen by Diageo master blender Dr Craig Wilson. Bottled at natural cask strength, the second year’s whiskies tell the tale of Robinson’s personal journey from trainee to master blender and each is also in some way representative of a beginning or an end.

Today, whisky lovers take descriptors such as ‘green-grassy’, ‘nutty’, ‘fruity’, ‘waxy’ or ‘sulphury’ for granted, but this method for categorising malts is actually a relatively modern innovation – one which Robinson was involved in developing more than 25 years ago. Over the years, her team created different classifications [for spirit styles]. The old classifications used to be ‘first’, ‘second’ or ‘third’ Highlands, or Lowlands – it was all regional. In the early 90s they decided to do something that was more on the flavour spectrum, rather than regional. Take Convalmore’s waxiness: Convalmore is waxy, but you also had Craigellachie as waxy, Aberfeldy was waxy and Clynelish is waxy, but they were in three different regions. As a result, the team began looking at spirit from the perspective of flavour rather than region, and subsequently spent many months at Royal Lochnagar nosing hundreds of samples from different distilleries at different ages – five, eight, 12, and older – trying to find out where they all fit into a new flavour-first framework. The results of that work, which built on methodologies identified by the Scotch Whisky Research Institute in the 1970s, can now be felt industry-wide.

The trials looked at the impact of coastal maturation, new oak and re-charring. However, it’s the ‘ghost’ stock from closed distilleries, such as this second release’s Convalmore 1984, that will perhaps be the focus of collectors’ attention. The finite nature of such liquid makes releases like this particularly special, though in truth it seems Diageo has no immediate shortage of ‘unicorns’. They’ve still got stock of Glen Albyn, some of Glen Mhor, reassuring whisky lovers that Prima & Ultima will not be a short-lived series. The one we’ve probably got the least of is St Magdalene (Linlithgow) –only one cask of that treasure remains.

The chosen casks are actually stocks ringfenced for ‘something special’ over the course of many decades. As a result of this labour of love, the Prima & Ultima Collection has been developed with the whisky lover – perhaps even the geek – in mind. There’s something delightfully nerdy about the details which make each bottling unique, and the level of both historic and technical detail shared shows a clear understanding that the true value of old and rare whisky lies in its flavour, quality and place in whisky history – not in the baubles added into the box to pump up the price.

Indeed, though the cost is still beyond the reach of an average Joe, at a mean price of just under £3,000 per bottle, the collection is noteworthy for the restraint exhibited in setting the RRP. Some companies might have added an extra zero – Diageo didn’t. One can only hope that others might be led by this example, and that the ongoing tug-of-war between whisky lovers and economically motivated opportunists may yet be won by those for whom whisky is, ultimately, a drink to be enjoyed, not a commodity to be traded. Understood at its most basic level, Prima & Ultima has been made for those of us for whom whisky is the first, the last, and everything.

                   

The lineup, with the Primas in green and the Ultima in crimson, included: 

• Auchroisk 1974 (47 Years Old)
• Brora 1980 (40 Years Old)
• Convalmore 1984 (36 Years Old)
• The Singleton of Glendullan 1992 (28 Years Old)
• Lagavulin 1992 (28 Years Old)
• Linkwood 1981 (39 Years Old)
• Mortlach 1995 (25 Years Old)
• Talisker 1979 (41 Years Old

Price-wise, a full set of eight bottles cost a cool $39,500. For the remaining bottles that weren’t part of the 376 full sets, some were available to purchase from the Diageo Rare & Exceptional webstore, costing between $1000 to $9000, but went up to five figures for the Auchroisk, Brora and Talisker bottlings.

Set #1 was sold in an online auction hosted by Sotheby’s from 15th to 24th September. All proceeds from that auction went towards CARE International, a humanitarian charity. Each bottle in that first set was signed by Maureen Robinson, a Master Blender at Diageo.

The third set was sold this year and has been dealt with in full detail in my succeeding blog. 

Social Media Panel

PEAKERR is the top automated and cheap SMM panel in the market. Here you can buy low-priced 4500+ promotional services for Grow Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Clubhouse, Spotify, Twitch, and other platforms Counts!

Disclaimer: This website is purely informative and does not use cookies. Third-party advertisers or Google Ads may well be using cookies for their benefit; it is their responsibility to inform you of the use of cookies and related policies.