The second Macallan of the week is a rare, precious and prestigious bottling: it is in fact a 23 year old Macallan, put in glass in 2000 by Silver Seal. This sherry-aged whisky (the color itself, dark copper, reveals it) was distilled in 1977; a few hundred kilometers south London clubs were invaded by people with a passion for colored crests, heroin (such a passion for heroin, uh!, how we liked it!) and punk rock. It goes without saying that where Macallan was distilled, none of this cast
shadows, and therefore we ignore Sid Vicious and go back to Rino Mainardi and his creature.
N: intensity and expressiveness at truly important levels; a sense of great compactness. We have a fairly ‘standard’ Macallan in front of us, if you like, but damn, what a standard! There is red fruit in great quantity and in various shapes (both fresh and in compôte), there is a nice freshly baked toffee (is the toffee actually baked? we’ll try and discover it); orange liqueur, and orange marmalade; a nice malt, toasted and aromatic; dried fruit, to oil everything (in our head that makes
sense). A few more ‘dirty’ notes, including rhubarb, toasted wood; even a bittersweet note, like worchester sauce. A simply monolithic nose, but in spite of the last adverb it’s not simple at all: traditional but not trivial. Dates and figs, great; licorice. What a quality!
P: very juicy and ultra-drinkable. Initially the alcohol may seem deficient: truth is that this Macallan is light years away from the alcoholic pungency of modern distillation (if nothing else, of what is
bottled today), and hides the alcohol volume in an ocean of pleasure. Very consistent with the nose, it replies it in every facet: it’s both very fruity (still red fruit, but there’s a lot of apples!) and toasted; it is both intensely sweet and refinedly tannic. We also add notes of a little toffee, chocolate, perhaps even sweetened coffee… Really good.
F: how long is that?! At first it replicates the palate for a while (with an a-ma-zing apple), then an oily maltiness and dried fruit (hazelnut) re-emerge; so we feel like we’re required to pull down our
hat.
Nothing to say: the Macallans of these years (and not only) have made history and it is not surprising, nor surprises that Macallan is the collectors’ favorite distillery. What a pity, however, that so many bottles lie closed in the cases of elegant gentlemen, when we would clearly prefer to drain them into our bellies… On this note of gnawing regret, we do not forget our mission and we bring out the number: 93/100, not a point less. Congratulations to Rino Mainardi for the selection, and thanks to Betty and Max, who gave us a sample of this nectar almost a year ago.
Recommended soundtrack: Sid Vicious – My way.
