The Amber is the second rung up in the 1824 range. In this expression, second fill sherry casks still get mixed in, and the casks are a combination of American and European oak casks. I mentioned that this series is to honor of the new distillery that will replace the current facility. The current Macallan facility has two separate production plants. Plant number one has five wash stills and ten spirit stills, while the number two plant has two wash stills and four spirit stills. Both facilities will be closed when the new plant comes online in 2017 with a capacity higher be 60 percent, of around 16 million liters of pure alcohol and at a cost of £100 million.
Photo Credit: drinkingcup.net
The new distillery will have 12 wash stills and 24 spirit stills (up from 7 wash stills and 17 spirit stills today) and with a look taken directly out of J.R.R Tolkien’s shire, the roof of the distillery will feature five small hills and will be covered in grass.
It looks like it will be a great place to visit 🙂
In the meantime, we’ll check out the current production of the stills in the old plants, zeroing in on the Amber:
Photo Credit: thewhiskybarrel.com
Macallan Amber (40% ABV, NAS, NCF, NC)
Appearance: Deep gold, thick legs.
Nose: Soaked white raisins, warm spices, a perfumy orange, white bread toast, dried fruit. This is sweeter than the Gold with more honey and gentle citrus.
Palate: Honey, sweet spice and vanilla in a more oily delivery than the Gold, with bitterness toward the end of the palate.
Linger: Pepper and spice with a rather long lingering sweetness.
Conclusion
The sherry is more pronounced in the Amber. It’s a better expression yet it two flaws.
The most obvious one, of course, is the ABV. What’s up with that? Secondly, the bitterness at the end of the palate is out of place in this warm and sweet dram.
All and all, it’s not quite what we were hoping for….
While Macallan used to be my favorite dram, I fear it has lost its way. In my opinion, they are turning out an inferior yet higher-priced whisky than they used to. I am not sorry to say that my allegiance has shifted to Glenfarclas and Glenlivet, who are turning out far better whiskies than Macallan at substantially lower prices.