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SB visits: The Macallan

Edrington-owned single malt Scotch whisky The Macallan recently opened the doors to its new £140 million distillery and invited SB to Speyside for a look around.

The Macallan assembled a group of journalists at Easter Elchies House to tour its estate

It has been a busy 12 months for Edrington-owned Macallan. The single malt Scotch whisky brand completed and opened its new distillery, launched its first television campaign, saw one of its bottles become the first whisky to sell for more than £1 million at auction and unveiled its oldest expression to date – a 72-year-old whisky bottled in a Lalique decanter.

To round off its impressive year, the Speyside whisky maker invited a group of journalists to its home on the Easter Elchies estate in Aberlour, Scotland, to take a look around.

While visiting the Speyside estate, SB was able to peruse Easter Elchies House, which features on the label of every bottle of The Macallan whisky, toured the distillery and its surrounding estate, and sampled a number of limited edition and rare Macallan bottlings.

Click through our gallery to find out more about SB‘s trip to The Macallan. 

After first arriving at the Easter Elchies Estate, SB was driven around the expansive warehouse facility that the brand is in the process of constructing. Behind the warehouses, which are capable of holding thousands of barrels, the Scotch whisky brand keeps its empty Sherry-seasoned casks – each waiting to be filled with new make spirit.

As part of the brand’s expansion, it has developed its barrel store to hold even more whisky-ready casks.

After visiting the glamorous world of barrel stores and bonded warehouses, it was time to pay a visit to some of the wildlife that lives on the grounds surrounding The Macallan.

The Scotch brand has a flock of Highland cattle on site, which were out enjoying the rain and ready to pose for photos.

The next stop was the on-site fishing hut, where the group had a chance to meet Macallan’s ghillie, Robert Mitchel.

Mitchel is responsible for monitoring fish stocks and hosting fishing trips on the river Spey. While speaking with the group he shared tales of his time fishing on the river and introduced everyone to his two dogs.

Then, it was time for a dram.

SB and other guests enjoyed a glass of The Macallan 12 Year Old on the banks of the Spey, taking the time to enjoy the scenery and sounds of the river below.

After that, the group headed inside the distillery.

Edrington opened the £140 million distillery in June last year with the intention of increasing the brand’s production capacity by a third.

At one end of the expansive space is a stainless steel mash tun, which is illuminated by lights that gradually changed between blue and orange through the course of the visit.

The stills in the new Macallan distillery are arranged in three circles, each made up of four wash stills and eight spirit stills.

In order to ensure the spirit produced at the new distillery is the same as that from The Macallan’s old distillery, the stills have retained the smaller proportions synonymous with the brand.

The new stills were created by Scottish coppersmith Forsyths.

After walking through the distillery and accompanying visitor centre, the group reached an enormous window that looks out over the estate.

The visitor centre at the new distillery aims to tell the story of the brand and explore the influences of different cask types on the finished whisky.

To conclude SB‘s visit to The Macallan, the group gathered in one of the brand’s bonded warehouses to sample a very special whisky.

The Macallan 72 Year Old is the brand’s oldest whisky release to date. It was distilled in the 1940s and has spent the ensuing years maturing in Speyside.

Only 600 decanters of the lightly peated whisky have been released, each carrying a recommended retail price of US$60,000.

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