Coming Soon - 1997 Signatory Vintage Macallan 25 Year Old Symington's Choice Cask Strength Single Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml)

Signatory’s founder, Andrew Symington was working at the prestigious Prestonfield House Hotel when he bought his first cask of whisky: a 1968 Glenlivet. Today, his good taste has transpired as a series in itself, highlighting his favourite casks from the vast selection housed in the enormous warehouses at Edradour in Pitlochry. The first Symington’s Choice selections were released in 2023 with a focus on heavily sherried single casks aged between 20-35 years old. It's these whiskies that (mostly) make up the current shipment. Subsequent releases will be a little younger, generally 15-20 years old, though still predominantly from first fill sherry casks. Apart from the expected quality, there is a 'wow factor' to the prices that makes each and every one worthy of consideration.

Obviously matured in a first-fill Oloroso sherry butt, you'd have to go back to the 1980s to discover Macallans as deep and dark as this. We have a small number of bottles from cask 12/3. Serge Valentin from whiskyfun tasted sister cask 12/4 and was impressed. Expections would be similar here. 649 bottles produced. 54.8% Alc./vol. Non chill filtered.

Notes from a sister cask 12/4... The whisky is almost as dark as the label! Here is a brand new range from Signatory, very high-end, with some pretty extraordinary names like Laphroaig, Bowmore, and indeed, Macallan. The prices seem high, but I'm sure it's worth it and not just marketing hype. At least it's not another NAS with a fancy name and story, straight from ChatGPT or Wikipedia. Colour: coffee. Nose: a pretty wonderful dry sherry, full of Havana tobacco, prunes, dried dates, old walnuts, and hoisin sauce, with an extraordinary fermentary and even slightly acetic side (old balsamic vinegar). We're a bit in the territory of a very old Ténarèze, or of the best of the Macallan 'Gran Reserva' from back in the day. With water: it becomes rather more elegant, almost slightly austere, with a very "grand chocolate from a great house" side. I always find it amusing to hear my Swiss, Belgian, Italian, Spanish or French friends claim that they make the best chocolates in the world. What if it were the Scots, perhaps even Scots from Pitlochry? Mouth (neat): creamy, goes down easily! Well, almost, there's still a lot of thickness, a syrupy texture, liquorice and pipe tobacco, a bit of tar, lots of dried prunes, Corinth raisins, precious molasses (if it existed), then peppermint and very chocolatey toffee... With water: it peacocks and goes fractal, with lots of spices, dried fruits, organic matter, and various old liqueurs. Alright, let's finish it, we don't have all day... Finish: long as a day without bread and indeed, rather on very damp pumpernickel, chocolate, and competition fruitcake (we have the winner). Comments: a real hit, after Signatory's sublime range of '30th Anniversary Bottlings' of three or five years ago. Come on, let's store it in its bottle for twenty more years to try to reach 95/100, then we'll talk about it again. What's sure is that this is Macallan as in 'Macallan', that is to say In compliance with what is written on the label of the bottle that follows... 93 points - whiskyfun.com