Collaborate to innovate
Bottle Name: Macallan Edition No. 2
Distillery: Macallan
Region: Speyside
Macallan's 'Edition Series' is marketed as an annual release designed to highlight both the distillery's use of a wide range of different cask types, as well as cross-industry partnerships with leading figures from the world of food and drinks. Edition No.1 oddly didn't highlight any particular collaboration, but Edition No.2 certainly makes sure we're aware of what's going on with some pretty heavy marketing. For this bottling, Macallan's Master Blender Bob Delgarno spent some time with the three Roca Brothers who run the famous El Cellar de Can Roca in Catalonia.
Edition No. 2 is a combination of both European and American oak, married from seven different types of sherry puncheons, butts and refill hogsheads. The casks were drawn from four different Spanish Sherry bodegas: Tevesa, Diego Martin, Jose Miguel Martin and Vasyma.
- 1st fill European oak Tevasa casks (selected by Macallan's Bob Delgarno)
- 1st and 2nd fill Diego Martin American and European casks (selected by Joan Roca - Head Chef)
- European oak Jose Miguel Martin casks (selected byJosep Roca - Sommelier)
- American oak Vasyma butts and puncheons (selected by Jordi Roca, Pastry Chef)
Nose: Black Forest gateaux with an espresso on the side! Rich milk chocolate with both fresh and dried berries and an unctuous underlying creamy vanilla. Reinforced with a kick of muscovado sugared espresso. Digging deeper, there’s orange peels, raisins and currants and a healthy dash of furniture polish. Lovely.
Taste: An oily and coating mouthfeel. At the lighter end there’s juicy Seville oranges and an intriguing herbal note (fennel perhaps?). Deeper flavours come via dried fruits soaked in sherry, liquorice and spent dark coffee grounds. There’s a lot of sweetness here, but it’s never cloying. Similarly the sherried profile comes across constantly, but it’s never overbearing. Wood spicing is highly sympathetic and lightly peppered.
Finish: Medium long with a touch of ginger, a solid level of tannins leads to very well judged astringency.
Macallan Edition No.2 is all about balance and it’s pretty damn delicious at the same time. I’ve seen much written about the overbearing marketing around this bottling, and indeed the contradiction of shouting about age statements being important (with the release of Double Cask 12 year old) and then following it up with a fairly expensive bottling which doesn’t have one. However, put all that aside and just focus on the liquid itself and you’ll find this to be one of 2016’s best releases. Lovely stuff.
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