I haven’t tasted much Macallan, and it’s generally not quite my style, but I was eager to get a bit of an historical sampling of their 18 year sherry bottlings nonetheless. This tasting was hosted by the great folks over at Dramfool, who as always did a great job of walking us through the lineup.
On to the first dram.
Lovely sherry nose. The obvious raisins, dates, and dark chocolate. Flowers and oak. Picking up a faint smoke; a BBQ across the park.
The palate is quite thin. It’s obvious the bottling is far too diluted. That said, the experience builds a bit over time, even getting some tacky and oily mouthfeel. More raisins and dates. Toffee. Dry and drying.
It’s warm. Ginger chocolate. Cinnamon and spice. Cherry and red fruits.
This is the 2023 (bottling date) release, bottled at 43%. A perfectly fine dram cut off at the knees by water. There’s some nice stuff going on, though it’s a pretty standard sherry dram and ruined by water. (Man, would I be upset to pay full cost on a bottle of this…)
Score: 2/5
Mental Image: Complex raisin water.
And now the second dram.
The nose dark and subdued. Caramel and chocolate. Strikes me more as a wine cask than sherry. We get some of the typical raisin notes, but it’s more of a dark, musty wine cask vibe.
On the palate, it is… again… very thin. Spices and ginger. Cloves. Chocolate candied ginger. A touch of red wine. Becomes somewhat mouthwatering.
I find it a bit spicy. Alcohol vapors, even at this dilution. Musty wine. A building metallic note. Orange zest.
This is the 2022 (bottling date) release, again at 43%. Some of the more beautiful Macallans I’ve had had notes that showed up in this edition. Again, lovely things going on, this time more interestingly so, completely ruined by dilution. On top of that, I did find the nose, palate, and finish pretty disjoint, even if it did have some overlap with wondrous high-end Macallans for me.
Score: 2/5
Mental Image: Underwater wine bar sweet treats.
We get started on the third dram.
It starts off with oak and marzipan. Herbs and tobacco. Sweet, succulent red fruits. Wafts of savory malt.
Thin, again, on the palate, but not as bad. It’s smooth and coats the mouth. Watered down sherry. Telltale Macallan ginger and cloves, building orange zest and chocolate orange candies.
Tobacco wafts over rich prunes. Ginger and orange zest lingers.
This is the 2021 (bottling date) edition, also bottled at 43%. Much more composed and cohesive. Notes verged on hard to identify beyond sherry cask influence and typical Macallan distillate. Nice, smooth, and mouth-coating. A shame it was subject to so much water. I’d have liked it to be more interesting overall, and obviously the ABV harmed it.
Score: 2/5
Mental Image: Poolside prunes behind the cigar lounge.
And now for something completely different. Dram four.
Well, it’s obviously a sherry cask! Rich chocolate and stewed cherries. Aged, light tobacco. Anise and charred oak. I’m finding it a bit perfumed.
Not nearly as thin as the previous drams. More body. Baking spices, ginger, and dark chocolate. Candied orange chews. Toffee. The mouthfeel really builds in comparison to the prior drams, becoming mouthwatering.
The finish is similarly perfumed to the nose. The familiar dark chocolate and candied orange notes dominate, with herbal and black tea notes wafting by.
This is the 2016 (bottling date) edition, bottled at a surprising 43%. It took going back nearly a decade in bottling dates to get to some good stuff. We’re getting somewhere… I would still prefer a slightly higher ABV, but it was not distracting as before.
Score: 3/5
Mental Image: Decadently moody tea time.
Onto our final 18 Year Sherry Oak.
Well this is actually on to something completely different. My first note was “WTF?” Kind of off and very funky. Whisky poured on aged beef. Onions. Extremely rich, viscous sherry. It’s deep and rich, but weird and off.
The palate is thinner than the nose implies. Dark sherry, a bit watered down. Some onion bleeds through. More dry aged meat. Some rubber. Over time, the sweetness and bright red fruits build, with cream shortly thereafter. Old dates and a touch of sulphur.
The finish is more of the same. Smoked, aged meat. Burnt rubber. Cream and sherry. Old, musty wood. Sulphur.
This was distilled in 1992 and bottled around 2010. Apparently, they used to mark the editions by distillation date and later switched to bottling date. Again, we’ve got a 43% bottling. While thinner, it’s much improved over the more recent editions. But good lord was that an odd dram. I’m a sucker for weird, interesting drams even if I don’t like them. For most, this is probably not the whisky they’d go for. If the price were (very) right, I’d be all over it for how odd it was. But alas, the stars do not align.
Score: 3/5
Mental Image: Bad steakhouse sherry tasting amidst body odour.
There was one more dram in the tasting, but not an 18 Sherry, so I’m omitting it from this post.
My overall impression: The Macallan probably has some exceptional raw distillate that could back up their inflated brand, but they neuter it into oblivion. The prices they (can) charge for these neutered bottles are laughable.
While their flavor profile is not my favorite, I’ve had some very old and/or indie-bottled releases that I’m still talking about to this day. These OBs are a far cry from that quality, but I can see some of the components — if only they’d do more to let the great foundation shine. That said, I’ve mostly had sherry bomb Macallans, so I’d be interested to try an array of other cask types particularly on the more transparent side.