Macallan 12 Year (SMWS 24.157 "In a Tapas Bar")

 

Another single cask, natural strength Macallan from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS")! I'm delighted. The last bottle (24.147, "The Deepest of Mahogany") was absolutely rich and impressive from every single angle - a rare opportunity to have a full blast sherry bomb from a well-known distillery that prides themselves on full sherry maturation. 

A quick SMWS note: the cask coding is used to protect the identities of the many, many distilleries who sell their casks to the SMWS; this is somewhat common in the independent bottlings scene, as you'll often see bottles from "Unidentified Orkney" or generic "Highland distillery" and so on. In this case, 24.157 indicates the 157th bottling released from distillery 24 (in this case, known to be Macallan). 

This bottle comes from a specific project where they took five 10 year Macallan casks that had been aged in first-fill Oloroso butts, revatted them, and then finished the revatted single malt in three other sherry casks (!). I'm intrigued. 

There was a lottery for three different bottlings: 

• 24.154 "Confessions of a Cask" - finished in a first-fill Spanish oak Oloroso hogshead,
• 24.155 "An Offaly Good Dram" - finished in another first-fill Spanish oak Oloroso hogshead, and
• 24.157 "In a Tapas Bar" - finished in a first-fill American oak Pedro Ximenez hogshead. 

I am happy to say I got the bottle I wanted - the drier, more leathery/tobacco-y PX finish on top of a super-resinous Oloroso maturation. I'm expecting a very balanced whisky. 

Let's begin with the official notes: 

The gorgeous nose takes you to a tapas bar in Jerez – solomillo al whisky, jamon, manchego, olives and toasted almonds; crushed oranges, horse harnesses, cigar butts and rich dark sherry. The palate has a lovely chewy, toothsome, woody, sticky sweetness that lingers long; flavours of raisins and ripe purple figs, oranges, walnuts and dark chocolate; red roses in a cigar box and Christmas spices; the perfect armchair dram. At ten years of age, we combined selected casks from the same distillery. We then returned the single malt into a variety of casks to develop further. This is one of those casks.

Oh yes, this is exactly what I was hoping for: ham, cheese, olives, almonds... horse harnesses (!), cigar butts (!!), on top of a mountain of raisins and figs, oranges, chocolate. This sounds precisely like what I like about a good sherried dram. I'm very excited! Bottled at 63.9% (!) Let's dig in: 

Nose: Wow - old wood, leather, cigar humidors when they are first opened... toasted, salted almonds. Old smoke, lingering after a cigar or a pipe. Light furniture polish. Charred orange peel, and also orange pith. A little bit of yeast. Smells *much* older than 12 years. I'm guessing this is the PX influence. This might be the most attractive sherry-matured nose I've ever encountered - but a big caveat is that you have to like old, leathery, woody sherry scents. Otherwise, you will absolutely hate this. 

I honestly hesitated to add water to this because I liked it neat so much... but I did. With water, a landslide of raisins come forth from the glass. Maybe grape jelly too. It sweetens noticeably and some of those leathery/woody scents pull back a bit to make way. 

Mouthfeel: Incredibly resinous. Coats the mouth entirely.

Palate: Wow, a real flavor explosion at the high proof: sticky raisins and hot, hot cinnamon. Fig syrup or reduction. Those chocolate oranges you always see around Christmas, but the dark chocolate variety. Espresso. Lots of baking spices - cloves, allspice, ginger especially. More sweet almond. More oakiness, along with some pepper. Absolutely amazing dram.

With water, ironically, the leathery/woody flavors push *forward* (the opposite of the nose) and the sweetness moves back. Old cracked leather armchairs made with polished oak. Just extinguished cigars - a bit of ash emerges here, and carries into the finish. Dark chocolate espresso beans. 

Finish: Wisps of smoke, tobacco leaf, orange and cherry liqueur, and a dark, old dank leather tannery all combine to last quite a bit. Some smoke and ash remains on the tongue long afterward. 

Verdict: Absolutely the best Macallan I've ever had, that's for sure. This absolutely *shames* their official bottlings (well, the ones I've had - I've never shelled out more than ~$100 or so for Macallan, so I've never had any of their special releases or vaunted aged stuff). The finish in the PX cask was exactly what the super-sticky-sweet Oloroso maturation needed - it becomes sweet, but mature and dry and leathery and woody, all at once. 

Wonderful stuff. Worth seeking on the auction circuit - worth the $175 that SMWS charged, which is something I don't say lightly for a 12 year old whisky. Special stuff. If this is what tapas bars smell and taste like, you will soon find me in all manner of tapas bars.