Macallan 1979 18 Year Old Gran Reserva

Description

Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Distillery Bottling 70cl / 40%

The magnificent Macallan 1979 Gran Reserva 18-year-old. This was the first and best release in the legendary Macallan Gran Reserva series and is still regarded as one of the finest heavily-sherried teenage Macallans ever released.

The first edition of Macallan Gran Reserva 18-year-old came from a batch of 1979 casks that were bottled in 1997, presumably after they were judged to be too good for the core range Macallan 18-year-old.

This somewhat cynical decision was to be fully justified by the response. Presented in a chunky, calligraphed wooden box, Macallan 1979 Gran Reserva 18-year-old caused a sensation among whisky fans – despite being priced at a whopping £75, which was nearly double the RRP for the standard Macallan 18-year-old at the time.

A stunning mixture of dark fruit and chocolate with simmering spice, coffee, balsamico and sweet, nutty, earthy complexity, Macallan Gran Reserva 1979 is a simply majestic whisky.

Macallan 1979 18 Year Old Bot.1997 Gran Reserva, this 1979 is regarded as the best of the highly-sought-after Gran Reserva series released in the 1990s to showcase the extreme end of sherried whisky from the distillery. Scoring 91 points on Serge Valentin’s whiskyfun.com, this is one of the landmark Macallan releases of the last twenty years.

• Tasting notes by Whiskyfun (Serge Valentin) 

  • COMMENT

    The old hyper-sherried version of the popular 18yo.

  • COLOUR

    Dark mahogany.

  • NOSE

    Yes, this is extremely different from any other Macallan. Starts on heady notes of mulled wine, cloves, big juniper berries, spearmint and coffee toffee and gets then more classically sherried, with the dark chocolate upfront and then notes of soy sauce, balsamico and barbecued beef. Also cigar box, thuja wood and very ripe blackberries. What’s quite incredible is that the whole is still quite fresh and lively, and certainly not sluggish. I like it.

  • MOUTH

    Thick, oily, rich, not weak at all despite the 40%, and more of a classic now. Heavy notes of rum-soaked raisins, figs, old rancio (huge!) and orange and herbs liqueur (like that famous Dantziger Goldwasser). Gets then spicier, mainly on cloves and pepper, with very funny hints of mescal as well. Excellent, really.

  • FINISH

    Long, coating, rich but clean and pure, with a faint saltiness as the signature and an aftertaste on blackberry jelly. Excellent sherried Macallan, certainly not on the same planet as its bros from 1980 and later. SGP:742 (wazzat?)

  • SCORE

    91 points.