Macallan

The Macallan

Macallan is the most sought-after whisky for collectors and investors alike with auction houses around the world seeing world records broken year on year.

The Macallan distillery has built probably the best reputation for quality malt whisky; rare expressions  fetching tens and even hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Distillery History

Located on a 390-acre estate in the Scottish Highlands near Craigellachie, The Macallan distillery was founded in 1824 and was one of the first Scottish distilleries to be legally licensed.

The distillery is wholly owned susidairy of the Edrington Group which purchased the brand from Highland Distillers in 1999. In 2018 Macallan has introduced a new state of the art visitor center whilst increasing its overall production and warehousing capabilities.

Originally, The Macallan was matured only in sherry oak casks brought to the distillery from Jerez Spain. Beginning in 2004, The Macallan introduced a new main product, the Fine Oak series, with the whisky mellowed in Bourban oak casks as well as sherry ones.

The distillery produces a number of expressions in its core Sherry Oak series, the most generally available being the 12-year-old, although the 18-year-old is widely distributed, alongside a 10-year-old cask strength expression at 58% ABV. Expensive 25- and 30-year-old versions can also be found.

World Records

In 2007, a bottle of 1926 The Macallan was sold at a  Christies auction for $54,000, making it one of the most expensive bottles of whisky ever sold.

In 2010, a bottle of The Macallan 64-year-old single malt whisky in a one-of-a-kind “Lalique: Cire Perdue” crystal decanter was sold for $460,000 at an auction at Sothebys in New York City.

In 2018  two extremely rare bottles of The Macallan 1926 featured labels commissioned by artists Sir Peter Blake and Valerio Adami, and originally retailed for £20,000, with the last known individual bottle sold in 2007 for US$75,000 at Christie’s. Both bottles were sold to a private collector for US$600,000 each – which almost matches another world held by The Macallan for the most expensive single bottle of whisky sold at auction.

The Region – Speyside

Speyside  single malts are distilled in the area around the River Spey in North Eastern Scotland.

The area itself lies between rivers and glens and is famed as having the largest amount of distilleries out of all the malt regions (42 in total). Flavours are diverse and non peaty. Their profile is associated with nutty fruit  Apple, pear, honey, vanilla and spice whilst famed for being finished in Sherry Oak casks