The Macallan Thirties Single Malt Scotch Whisky (500ml)

Note: the box is bruised and there's some fading to front bottle label. One only.

This collectable range of four Macallan variants, recreated by the distillery's master Whisky Maker, reflects the style of The Macallan in the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s and the distinctive packaging features a classic mode of travel from each era. Renowned international whisky writer, Michael Jackson, described the series in his Malt Whisky Companion as being ”Amongst the highest of any malts”.

To recreate the taste of the Macallan as it was in the 1930s, sample bottles from that decade were opened and their aroma and flavour matched with more recent distillations. During the 1930s, with coal in short supply as a result of increasing industrial activity, The Macallan reverted to drying barley using peat fires. This, combined with the scarcity of sherry casks due to the Spanish civil war, resulted in a whisky that was both peatier and less spicy than the modern day Macallan. In his recently released Whisky Bible, Jim Murray scored the Macallan Thirties bottling 91 points, describing it as "...an essay in complexity and balance." Other commentators seem to agree.

Other reviews... Nose: Seville orange. Fresh leather. Lemon-grass. Peat. Palate: Smooth, sweet. The fruitiest and most estery of the set. Finish: Sweet grass. Juicy. Comment: With its floweriness and a hint of peat, this seems to me a classic old-style Speysider. 40% Alc./Vol. 9.5 / 10.
- Michael Jackson, whiskymag.com