How The Macallan Became a Cult Scotch Whisky
When it comes to spirits, Scotch whisky is on the more expensive end of the spectrum. For the most part, it’s single malts bringing up the price of the whole category, with bottles typically costing far above that of their blended counterparts. But there’s expensive single malt Scotch, and then there’s The Macallan.
While the distillery produces a few more affordable bottles — like the Double Cask 12 Year, which one can find for around $70 — the vast majority of its expressions arrive in the over-$200 range. And often, whisky lovers shell out even more for a bottle of the distillery’s prized single malts. In fact, The Macallan accounts for nearly every one of the world’s most expensive Scotch whiskies, with its 2022 release, “The Reach,” priced at an average $222,249. But how did the Scotch producer come to be so beloved that people are willing to pay a quarter of a million dollars for a taste?
It all goes back to 1824, when The Macallan first opened just one year after the Scottish Excise Tax legalized distilling in the country. Established in Speyside, where it remains today, The Macallan was one of the first legally licensed distilleries in Scotland, a legacy that undeniably leads to some of the brand’s lofty price tags. But it wasn’t just one of the first whisky producers in Scotland. The Macallan was also one of the first Scotch distillers to incorporate sherry barrels in the maturation process, which allowed the brand to develop a reputation for producing whisky with intense complexity.
While the sherry bomb is now a popular, albeit not strictly defined, sub-category of Scotch, The Macallan kickstarted the trend with its sherry-aged whisky that often tastes well beyond its age statement. And the labor that goes into achieving this flavor profile with the proper casks is no joke. According to the brand, it takes approximately six years from start to finish for barrels to be fully prepared to house freshly made distillate.
To start, The Macallan sources oak from two continents, North America (Ohio, Missouri, and Kentucky) and Europe (Galacia, Asturias, and Cantabria, Spain and the French Pyrenees). Typically, North American oak is around 70 years old before it’s harvested, while those in Europe are approximately 100 years old. Once harvested, the oak is left to air dry for one year as opposed to kiln drying, which is much faster but has the potential to strip the wood of qualities The Macallan deems necessary for aging.
Once dried, the oak is cut into staves and shipped to a cooperage in Jerez de la Frontera in Spain to dry for another year in the sun before it’s crafted into a cask and seasoned with sherry. These casks are so important that The Macallan actually has its own master of wood, Stuart Macpherson, whose sole responsibility is ensuring the highest possible quality. The entire process costs about ten times as much as standard oak-barrel production, which is why even the most affordable bottles of The Macallan are over $50.
But it isn’t just the casks themselves that contribute to the cult status of this whisky, it’s also how long the whisky spends maturing in the casks. While Scotch must age for a minimum of three years in order to be labeled as such, The Macallan’s youngest age-stated whisky in the classic range matures for 12 years — four times as long as industry mandate. Other bottles in the collection age for 18, 25, and even 30 years, but that’s just scratching the surface.
Outside of the core collection, The Macallan has released some of the world’s oldest whiskies, even launching the world’s oldest whisky in 2024 with the debut of 84-year-old Time: Space. There’s also The Reach, distilled in 1940 and aged for 81 years before its 2022 release, 50-year-old Anniversary Malt, and several Lalique carafe editions aged for over 55 years.
Maturing spirits for such long periods of time is a challenge, to say the least, with most Scotches reaching a point where the barrel no longer benefits the liquid, and in some cases actively harms it. Whether it’s too much oak extraction or an overwhelming amount of tannin, allowing whisky to mature for decades requires extreme precision and control, and The Macallan has demonstrated that it’s capable of both. The distillery’s harnessing of the maturation process results in unique and layered whiskies, most of which burst with aromas of toasted nuts, baking spices, and vanilla.
Despite the brand’s notoriously high prices, whisky lovers can’t seem to get enough. The Macallan has released hundreds of limited-edition bottlings, and almost every single one sold at auction has fetched an eye-popping price. In November 2018, a singular bottle of The Macallan 1926 60-Year-Old sold for over $1.5 million at a Christie’s auction in London, setting a record at the time. Five years later, Sotheby’s auctioned off a bottle of The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 60-Year-Old for $2.7 million.
It’s so sought after that some consumers are willing to spend over $10,000 on just one pour of the precious single malt. In 2017, Chinese millionaire Zhang Wei bellied up to the bar at Devil’s Place in Switzerland’s Waldhaus Am See Hotel and ordered a glass of what he believed to be a 1878 expression and paid $10,050 to enjoy it. Unfortunately for Wei, an analysis of the liquid conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford determined that the Scotch was actually distilled about a century later, sometime between 1970 and 1972. Moreover, it likely wasn’t even a single malt, with the test revealing about 60 percent malt and 40 percent grain.
While he eventually got his money back from the hotel (and allegedly was not angered by the mistake), we can’t imagine we’d be pleased if we thought we were sipping centuries old single malt before learning it was actually a much younger blend. That said, we also can’t imagine forking over $10K for a singular dram, but we guess you have to do what you have to do to get your hands on a serving of The Macallan’s beloved cult Scotch.
The article How The Macallan Became a Cult Scotch Whisky appeared first on VinePair.