In the pursuit of happy sipping, a holy matrimony between aroma and taste is put forth after the fastidious marrying of thousands of oak casks.
Regardless of how much whisky one has tasted, the true connoisseur will still go head-over-heels for that out-of-this-world whisky. Indeed whisky lovers will go on and on about how the taste is like “spiced nutmeg with a subtle hint of vanilla”, or how its smell is evocative of the woods in Northern Spain. Mere dabblers in the Water of Life probably cringe and roll their eyes at such lofty and poetic statements. Don’t be too surprised to find these very same Doubting Thomases waxing lyrical upon discovering the intricate and often complex processes that go into the production of single malt whisky.
Committed to cultivating the perfect single malt whisky, The Macallan is particular about oak cask sourcing. Under the watchful eye of George Espie, the Master of Wood, every single cask is handcrafted or hand-picked. While most of the oak casks have been seasoned with sherry in Spain, a few are christened with bourbon in the United States.
The Macallan Sherry Oak is exclusively matured in selected sherry oak casks from Jerez, Spain. The long journey from acorn to cask begins in the forests of Northern Spain where casks are fashioned by hand in the province of Cadiz. Before being filled with aged sherry, the casks are saturated with fermenting grape juice from the vineyards of Jerez. After being left to season for two years, they are ready to begin the 2,000 mile journey to The Macallan distillery.
The Macallan Fine Oak is matured in a unique combination of bourbon and sherry oak casks. Amongst these are American oak casks, which have previously held bourbon or sherry, and European oak casks, which have previously held sherry.
Prior to being diffused into the carefully selected oak casks, the distillery’s curiously small copper stills, which play a crucial role in distilling process, helps to concentrate the flavor, delivering a rich and full-bodied character to the ‘new make’ spirit. Typically, only 16 % of the ‘finest cut’ – the amount of distilled spirit collected from the stills as ‘new make’ spirit – goes to fill the casks. This highly discriminating process is the starting point for all The Macallan whiskies.
Once filled, each cask affects the ‘new make’ spirit in different ways to create dynamic variations in color, aroma and flavor. A typical Macallan is created from around 50 casks through ‘vatting’, a process that identifies and marries these individual casks together. Given The Macallan’s long history, its single malt whisky has had the time to mature in a number of styles ranging from rich and complex through to subtle, delicate and refined. While The Macallan Sherry Oak is characterized by its rich color and hints of dried fruit and spice, The Macallan Fine Oak imparts a subtle and delicate color with hints of dried fruit, floral aromas and toffee sweetness.
Contrary to lesser single malts, The Macallan insists that all color remain natural. While the interaction of spirit and oak contributes to the rich diversity of color, it also presents an interesting challenge when it comes to ensuring consistency from bottle to bottle and generation to generation. To achieve this, Bob Dalgarno, The Macallan Whisky Maker, and his team experiment with thousands of casks to ensure consistent quality and color when they are married together for bottling.
The success of these alliances is manifested in The Macallan’s exceptional collections. In 2002, the Fine & Rare collection was widely acclaimed for its diverse hues and aroma, thus attesting to the distillery’s insistence on the natural interaction of spirit and wood. Comprising 38 vintage The Macallans from 1926 to 1974, the single malt whisky was cultivated in an array of European and American oaks before being seasoned with sherry during both the first and second fills.
Tags: Barrel, copper stills, espie, jerez spain, Laphroaig, Macallan, macallan distillery, macallan fine oak, northern spain, oak cask, oak casks, oak tree, scotch, Scotch whisky, Scotland, Single malt whisky, true connoisseur, United States, water of life, whisky, whiusky
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