• Macallan 1971 25 Years Old Anniversary Malt
  • Macallan 1971 25 Years Old Anniversary Malt

Macallan 1971 25 Years Old Anniversary Malt

$7,650 AUD

43% 70 cl

This spectacular 25 year old Speyside single malt was filled into sherry casks at The Macallan distillery in 1971 and bottled for the Anniversary Malt series in 1997. Increasingly difficult to source, these vintages are the pinnacle in terms of collectability and quality, particularly when they come in superb condition with the original wooden presentation box. The latter has a splinter missing from the bottom of the box.

It might be worth recording here some notes from The Macallan about their 25 years old Anniversary Malts:

"We stopped referring to our 25 years old as the Anniversary Malt in 2004. The year of distillation was removed a year or two before that as this conveyed that all the whisky contained therein was distilled in that year, whereas this was not always the case. There is frequently older whisky contained in the vatting”.

This product is located in the United Kingdom.

Distillery

Macallan Distillery

This is the ne plus ultra in Speyside malt whiskies and has set a standard to which many aspire but few succeed.

Sadly, when Alfred Barnard visited the distillery in 1886 he was so unimpressed by it that he dismissed it in seven lines of what was a very heavy tome. Or perhaps he was simply shown the door in the mistaken belief that he was just another carpetbagger from the South! 

This was in sharp contrast to the warmth of the welcome I received when I retraced Barnard’s footsteps 100 years later to be the guest of two of Scotland’s whisky legends – Willie Phillips as managing director and Sandy Curle, the distiller-in- chief at Macallan since 1972. 

Despite Barnard’s neglect, Macallan has a rich history and much of it is recorded in some detail. It is also reflected in how the company has projected itself, not least by representing some of their excellent products against a suitable historic backdrop. Legitimate from 1824 onwards but almost certainly with a darker earlier history, Macallan is a wonderful fusion of tradition and modernity. The latter is reflected in the decision to build a completely new distillery, which went into production in 2017.  We all wait with baited breath to see if it will be a match for its forerunner and it will be a long wait given Macallan’s policy on maturation. However, there is plenty of maturing stock to ensure that interest in, and devotion to the Macallan make does not waiver in the meantime.

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