In today's whisky world, Macallan is like Mount Everest, firmly occupying the top of the whisky arena, and there is no rival.
Dave Bloom's "World Whiskey Map" commented that Macallan is the "First Growth" "First Growth" (First Growth) in whiskey; the late Michael Jackson, the giant whisky arm, in "Whiskey Companion" In the book (Malt Whisky Companion), Macallan is also evaluated as the single malt whisky with the highest grade of , . Jim Murray's "Whiskey Bible" not only has the deepest inscriptions on Macallan, but also the wines of various vintages have received extremely high scores, with a total average of over 92.1 points.
It is the favorite of top collectors and investors all over the world. Its rare and high vintage wines have always been the target of collectors pursuing heavy money in auctions, occupying the highest transaction volume and highest turnover on the auction floor for a long time. The location of the winery NO.1. Some people even spend a lot of money just to taste the rare old Macallan.
On November 29, 2018, a bottle of "1926 Macallan 60 Years" hand-painted by artist Michael Dillon was sold for 1.2 million pounds (approximately 10.28 million yuan), breaking the world's highest-priced whisky auction record.
In less than a year, on October 24, 2019, a bottle of Macallan single malt distilled in 1926 (distilled in 1926, bottled in 1986, only 40 bottles in the world) was auctioned in London, England, for 1.5 million The high price of the British pound (approximately 13.58 million yuan) fell the hammer, rewriting the world record set in November 2018. This bottle of Macallan has been described as the "Holy Grail of Whiskey."
In addition to top collectors and investors, ordinary whiskey lovers also regard Macallan as the "Mecca Center", a must-have and must-drink whisky in this life.
-Why is McAllen so awesome?
The Macallan Distillery is located in Speyside, the sacred place of Scotch whisky. It was founded in 1824 and was one of the first generations of legally licensed distilleries in Scotland. In the past 200 years, the reason why Macallan has been able to compete in whisky and gradually dominate the world is based on the six major pillars of Macallan: SPIRITUAL HOME (spiritual home), CURIOUSLY SMALL STILLS (ultra small stills), FINEST CUT ( Extract essence), EXCEPTIONAL OAK CASKS (selected oak barrels), NATURAL COLOUR (natural color), PEERLESS SPIRIT (peerless wine).
1, Easter Elchies House (Easter Elchies House)
The spirit of McAllen began with the Scottish Highland manor, Easter Elchies House, built by Captain John Grant in 1700 with local sandstone. In 1824, Alexander Reid leased the estate and surrounding land to establish the Macallan Distillery. In 1841, the earliest recorded bottle of Macallan whiskey was published. In 1961, McAllen finally decided to purchase the manor and its adjacent houses and began his own glorious history.
Today, Easter Elchies House is not only the spiritual home of every McAllen employee, but also the city of Mecca in the hearts of whisky lovers around the world.
2, CURIOUSLY SMALL STILLS (CURIOUSLY SMALL STILLS)
Macallan Distillery's distiller is the most among the many whisky distillers in the Spey River areaSmall, like the dwarf in the movie "The Ring of Nibelungen". It is so unique that it has become a symbol of regional culture as printed on the Scottish 10-dollar note.
The short (only 4 meters high) distiller allows the liquor to be in contact with the copper wall to the greatest extent during the distillation process. With the slanted Lynn arm, the result is a strong and brave liquor. The new liquor has just been distilled. Obviously greasy, malt, deep, and most importantly sweet. After alliance with Shirley barrels, you will get a rich fruity aroma and a mellow and solid body. And this is the trait of McAllen.
3, FINEST CUT (FINEST CUT)
The Macallan Distillery only takes about 16% of the core after double distillation. This is the smallest proportion in the Scotch whisky industry, and this is the essence of the essence. The color of the extracted wine core is clear and transparent, and the average alcohol concentration is about 69.8% ABV. It has a solid body and strong flavor, and it complements each other after marriage with the top sherry barrel.
4, EXCEPTIONAL OAK CASKS (EXCEPTIONAL OAK CASKS)
"The beginning of all top whisky brewing is not in Speyside's distillery, but in the warm sunshine of Spain." The Macallan official also admitted: " A whisky of extraordinary quality, 80% of the flavor characteristics are derived from mature oak barrels."
oak barrels are the source of all high-quality whiskies. Macallan’s parent group, Eddington Group, controls 90% of the world’s highest quality sherry barrel resources and a complete sherry barrel supply chain. McAllen’s oak barrel supplier is Tevasa in Jerez, Spain. McAllen only selects red oak from northern Spain (about 14% of the essence) that is between 70 and 100 years old and sends it to Jerez to expose to the sun, and then hand-crafts oak barrels. Then they poured Oloroso sherry into the barrels and it took 18-24 months to moisten the barrels before McAllen would accept this batch of sherry barrels.
McAllen takes about 6 years to make a new sherry barrel. It costs about 1,000 pounds each, which is time-consuming and costly. Moreover, each oak barrel is not used more than twice, which is also relatively expensive for McAllen. the reason. Although expensive, Macallan has always insisted on this, allowing Macallan to continue to be known for producing sweet wines with rich and fruity aromas, making Sherry Barrels synonymous with Macallan.
(However, with the introduction of the Fine Oak series in 2004, McAllen also began to use bourbon barrels. While controlling costs, it broadened its product line and achieved different tastes.)
5, NATURAL COLOUR)
The world's top sherry barrels will naturally bring wonderful flavor and color to Macallan's whiskey. This is the reason why Macallan's whiskey is not adjusted manually or caramel. The McAllen bartenders not only did not perform manual color adjustment, but also creatively produced the 1824 Series with the theme of wine color.
6, PEERLESS SPIRIT (PEERLESS SPIRIT)
Macallan can become today's top whisky brand from a small distillery in 1824, and its continuous insistence on quality is indispensable. Adhere to the use of top-quality oak barrels and no added caramel color, they, as always, insist that every drop of Macallan is a PEERLESS SPIRIT that meets high standards.
In 2018, the new McAllen winery that took 42 months to build was officially opened. For the future of McAllen, Eddington invested a full 500 million pounds (about 4.27 billion yuan), of which 140 million pounds (about 1.2 billion peopleCoin) is used for the establishment of a new winery. This plan also includes additional investment in whisky storage equipment, and the Sherry oak barrel supply chain that Macallan is most proud of. A total of 36 brand new stills in 12 groups have distilled new wine.
The wave-like wooden roof structure of the new winery is composed of 380,000 individual components. It is one of the most complex wooden roof structures in the world. The new winery is leaning on the easter Elchies House, the spiritual estate of McAllen, and Spey River, the lifeblood of the winery. And built, seamlessly embedded in the local landscape.
and the new whisky distillery & visitor center, ingeniously display the six pillars that support the core spirit of the Macallan with advanced interactive technology; on the balance of the long tradition of brewing and the sustainable development of the future, the Macallan The mission of the factory is to make the most accurate interpretation. Ian Curle said: "We are standing on the shoulders of giants, what we are doing is laying the foundation for the next generation."
McAllen continues to make strides towards the world's top malt whisky distillery.
——Introduction to Macallan’s main product series
1, The Macallan in Lalique
Since 2005, Macallan has become a partner with French crystal brand Lalique (Lalique) every two years. A limited edition wine from the Lalique series. The series released a total of 6 works, and designed the crystal bottle shape based on the six pillars of Macallan.
These wines are selected from more than 50 years of rare liquor, coupled with the artistic value of crystal bottles, has always occupied the world's most expensive whiskey throne. At the 2017 Sotheby's Hong Kong auction, a complete Macallan Lalique series sold directly by the winery was sold at a high price of 6.3 million Hong Kong dollars.
2, McAllen’s 50th Anniversary Edition
McAllen’s 50th year was only launched in 1983, 1999, 2003, and 2008.
3, The Macallan Fine & Rare
The Macallan Fine & Rare
The earliest vintage of the Macallan Rare Vintage can be traced back to 1926.
4, Macallan 1824 Masters Series The Macallan 1824 Masters Series
This series is named after the Macallan 1824 as the first batch of wineries to obtain a wine license. The wine follows the Macallan's classic sherry barrel aging method, but does not have a wine age indication.
In addition, the 1824 Master Series also has wines exclusively for duty-free channels, including Rare Cask Black, which exhibits the unprecedented peat and smoky flavors of Macallan. And 4 works named directly after the color of the liquor, namely Gold, Amber, Sienna, and Ruby. The color ranges from light to dark, and the price becomes more expensive. These four wines are all discontinued, but the first Gold will become Double Cask Gold in the future.
5, The Macallan Golden Age of Travel
In addition, Macallan also cooperated with Lalique to create a golden age series exclusively for duty-free shops around the world, and the original wines are from the 1930s. Limited edition of 50 bottles. The series has come to the second generation of wine, the first generation is themed on cruise ships, The second generation is based on aviation travel in the 1930s.
6, The Macallan Sherry Oak
The Macallan Classic Sherry Barrel series, has always been the most representative works of Macallan. Including 40 years, 30 years, 25 years, 18 years and 12 years.
McAllen has also created a 1700 series specifically for the Chinese market, including three products including Director's Edition, President's Edition and Chairmen's Release, all of which use classic sherry barrels. Vintage whiskey.
also mentioned in the previous article that in order to cope with the shortcomings of Spanish sherry barrels, Macallan also launched the classic Macallan The Double Cask 12 Years Old. This wine is blended with a single malt whisky that has been aged in Spanish sherry casks and American sherry casks for at least 12 years. The charming characteristics of the two sherry casks are perfectly blended to create a mellow, full and delicate flavor. .
7, The Macallan Fine Oak
, the Macallan Fine Oak
uses sherry barrels and bourbon barrels, including 30, 25, 21, 18, 17, 15, 15, 12 and 10 years of eight works .
Of course, for McAllen fans, this series has caused many people's dissatisfaction because they no longer have McAllen's pure Shirley Bucket DNA. Because the voice was too strong, Macallan had to compromise, adding to the composition of the original Shirley barrel wine, and "optimizing" the elegant series into the Fine Oak Triple Cask Matured series.
, as an experienced McAllen drinker, there will always be a few classics that will never forget. For example, the Macallan Cask Strength, the original wine series, is characterized by not being mixed with water before bottling. It has a high alcohol content of nearly 60 degrees and presents the original flavor of the wine matured in Spanish sherry barrels.
At the end of 2017, Macallan launched another The Macallan Classic Cut, without wine age logo, the alcohol content is also close to 60, and the wine label is very similar to The Macallan Cask Strength.
also has The Macallan Gran Reserva, the Macallan Gran Reserva, which is the first barrel of Spanish sherry barrels, which is considered to have the classic flavor of Macallan. The series has been launched in 12 years and 18 years. This year, Macallan launched a 15-year model The Macallan Gran Reserva 15 Years Old, which is just in the middle of the previous two years.
In addition, Macallan has restarted the new series Exceptional Single Cask, which is bottled with the strength of a single barrel of original wine. The whole series has a total of 14 wines.
8, The Macallan The Macallan The Edition Series
Since 2015, the Macallan has launched an annual limited series. Each year, a non-vintage wine produced with crossover masters is launched and numbered by numbers. For the name. As a result, there will be another limited edition wine with a special significance every year.
Currently, Edition No. 1, Edition No. 2, and Edition No. 3 have been launched; Edition No. 4; Edition No. 5.
9, The Macallan The 1824 Collection Series The Macallan The 1824Collection
is a non-vintage series originally planned by McAllen to focus on the duty-free market. It includes Select Oak, Whisky Maker's Edition, Estate Reserve, and Oscuro. And limited to 1824 (Limited Release MMXI) five works.
10, The Macallan The Quest Collection
The Macallan Quest Collection is the latest year-free series developed by the Macallan, which will replace the 1824 Collection series into the duty-free channel from this year. There are also 4 wines: Quest, Lumina, Terra and Enigma. The style goes from fresh and smooth to rich and strong.
