Hi all,
So I did some digging around about the nature of the US c/s bottling released this year by Macallan -- and was quite surprised by the answers I got from the distillery. I was guessing that the c/s was comprised of a high ratio of first fill sherry casks but it seems that both it (and the European, duty-free bottling) are *all* first fill casks. And, according to the distillery, the US c/s is made up of older casks than the European variant. This part was hard for me to believe, but the distillery says that the age of the US bottling ranges between 10 and 15 years of age with no whisky less than 10 years used. Again, this seems odd not to include an age statement of 10 Year Old if that's the case but perhaps they want to leave the door open to drop in the occasional 9 year old cask if need be. When I mentioned that I found the US bottling to taste younger, anywhere from
7 to 8 at its youngest, I was offered a replacement bottle so that they could check mine for corkage.Don't get me wrong -- I quite like the US c/s version, it's the best Macallan I've tasted from the distillery since I tried the 1985 vintage of the 18 Year Old. It seems that there was a real problem at the distillery between 1980-84 if the whiskies from this time are anything to go by. But from the younger, first fill expressions I've sampled, it seems that things are back on track at Macallan and the c/s is a nice change of pace from the overpriced marketing tripe I've sampled, the Replica series a case in point. But older than the European bottling? I'm still surprised to hear this but have another European c/s on the way, so will do more comparison when it comes in.
Johanna