Macallan 13 Year (SMWS 24.162 "Dystopian Deviant")

 

This single cask bottle of Macallan caught me by surprise. I think it's the final bottling of a longstanding vatting project by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS") where they took 10 year Oloroso-matured Macallan and re-vatted it, and then finished it in different sherry casks. I've had four bottles from this project (24.147, 24.157, 24.159, 24.160), and they were all spectacular - they reinforce Macallan's reputation for exceptional casking. So I bought the final bottle as a matter of course, even though it was more expensive and in the new 700 mL format. 

This one is a single year older than the other four vattings I had, which automatically makes it a little more curious - why the extra year? Here are the official notes:

USA Exclusive Cask

We found this one to be extremely focussed on freshly baked brown breads, savoury pastries, meat pies, mutton stock, redcurrant gravy and toasted wood spices. Meaty, thick, unctuous and deeply alluring. Water turned it into hot Ribena! Then mad notes of mulled Buckfast, passion flowers, strawberry laces, mineral oils, hessian and thick, musty dunnage earthiness. The neat palate was rich with hardwood resins and an immense, assertive peppery spiciness. Smoked red chilli, paprika, damson chutney, iodine droplets, natural tar and bitter herbal medicines. Water brought thick stout beer, chilli-infused hot chocolate, charred herbs, BBQ embers, cloves and mustard seeds popping in hot oil. At 10 years of age, we combined selected oloroso butts from this distillery. We then returned the single malt into a variety of different casks to develop further. This is one of those casks.

So far, so good. I love savory sherry notes, so this sounds right up my alley. In addition to the above casking notes, this was bottled at 62.9% (extremely pleasing). Let's just go nuts: 

Nose: Sweet raisins and plums, honey-glazed ham, old wood, and red fruit stew with walnuts mixed in. Some cinnamon, too. Cola... cherry cola. Pepper. This is just terribly rich. 

With water: Sure, I get the "Ribena" reference (carbonated blackcurrant soft drink) ... strawberry, earth, herb, and polished wood. A distinctly Macallan-esque sherry experience. 

Mouthfeel: Medium, oily. 

Palate: Hot. Very hot - the alcohol is everywhere, at first. Then: cherries, strawberries, oil, earth, raisins, chili pepper, chutney (that's a great note by the official tasters!), tar, herbs. Much closer to the "savory" line than the "sweet" one. 

With water: Water expands the palate but in an unexpected way: stout beer is right on the mark (!), as are cloves and mustard (!!). Hardwood floors, freshly laid. Raisins and walnuts, dropped on said floor. Cherry cola turned up to 11. More of that glazed ham. This is rich beyond belief. 

Finish: Wisps of smoke (!), burnt raisins, wood, pepper, currants. 

Verdict: It's like the other four - rich, complex, but almost overwhelming. There is just so much going on, it's too much to easily take in. This is a dram that DEMANDS you sit and really take your sweet time with it - it offers a lot, and refuses to be digested quickly or easily. This might be heresy, but I actually think the official bottlings of Macallan showcase their house style better than these turbocharged single cask offerings - this is challenging stuff. Not for the casual drinker, at all. "Dystopian Deviant," indeed.