On the nose, its depth delivers notes of dark chocolate, cinnamon, and peat before transitioning to a blend of toffee, crystallized ginger, and deep mineral notes. Located in Speyside, the heartland of single malt whisky in north-east Scotland, the distillery overlooks the mighty river Spey and is watched over by The Macallan’s spiritual home, Easter Elchies House, a Jacobean manor house built in 1700. The Reach has a gorgeous amber hue, almost like a cognac. The Macallan is one of the first legally licensed distilleries in Scotland, founded in 1824. Needless to say, there was a herculean amount of effort and collaboration that had to take place in order for this one barrel of scotch to see the light of day.Īfter 81 years of aging, the distillers at The Macallan finally got to test the fruits of their labor.
While this scotch aged, World War II concluded, the rise and fall of the Soviet Union happened, we went to the moon, and the advent of social media took place. To put that in perspective, this one batch of scotch is older than color TV, the internet, and Skittles, starting its aging process in a single sherry cask in 1940. The Macallan defied odds, expectations, conventional wisdom, and time itself when it announced the release of The Reach, an 81-year-old single malt scotch. But 81 years? That’s practically unheard of… until now, anyway. That’s why it’s rare to see anything over 18 years old, and even rarer to find a scotch aged 30 years old or older. Aside from the time commitment, distillers have to worry about the angel’s share, which is the amount of spirit that gets evaporated every year it ages.
With that said, there is absolutely a point of diminishing returns when aging scotch. The longer a scotch ages, the more time it has to develop a richer, deeper, more complex flavor profile. One of the biggest determinants when calculating a scotch’s worth and quality is its age.
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