The first international whisky showdown! One of Scotland’s best known brands against a perennial favorite from Japan! Macallan 12 and Yamazaki 12 go at it this time. The Macallan is the better known of the two, but my previous review of the Yamazaki 12 was quite good and I’ll be interested to see how my perceptions will change, if at all, with a head to head tasting. Both of these whiskies have sherry casks involved in the aging, but the Yamazaki uses three types of casks in its process. American oak, toasted, is used in the Yamazaki as are Japanese oak barrels which lend a distinct flavour. The aging strategy at both distillers should make for different tasting experiences.
The visuals are quite different between the two. The Macallan with a rich dark copper tone contrasts clearly against Yamazaki’s light gold colour. The Macallan’s legs are thick next to the Yamazaki, though both appear to run rather quickly. Both products are bottled at 43% abv.
The nose on the Macallan is fruity, with orange standing out. There’s some smoke and oak to bind the fruit with the overwhelming sherry influence. The Yamazaki is sweet, moves away from orange and towards melon, pineapple, honey glaze, vanilla, light spice, but no sign of smoke.
The palate on the Macallan exudes sherry and oak. There’s a bit of smoke in there too. The Yamazaki is still fruity. The pineapple is strong as is the honey. The vanilla is also quite present.
The finish on the Macallan is dry, slightly smokey, not too long but quite pleasant. The Yamazaki is fruity even on the finish. Lingering notes of melon and pineapple continue to play with honey and vanilla, providing a very nice overall experience with enough complexity to keep it interesting.
I’m quite sure I’ll surprise a lot of people by declaring my preference for the Yamazaki 12 over the Macallan 12 overall. Both are good, but the Yamazaki is better at delivering a complex experience. At $65 at the SAQ, this is a better value in both relative and absolute terms on the Macallan 12 which is sold for almost $90. The LCBO sells the Macallan 12 for roughly the same price in Ontario and does not carry the Yamazaki 12. The Yamazaki 12 is a great drink for everyday, special occasions, and sharing with friends who are both whisky fans or not normally whisky drinkers. Pick up a bottle, you won’t regret it.
The Macallan Gran Reserva is a simultaneously iconic yet confusing series of bottlings from our celebrity Speyside Scotch distillery.
Now, the Macallan has no shortfall of iconic bottlings – might even have the most quite honestly, and is really why it sometimes almost feels like Macallan knows it and couches it. It’s not all marketing – okay, maybe it is some of that, but nobody in Scotland does it better than Macallan. The distillery ensures that every year, it’s series after series, almost playing the Power Law, where if one strikes gold, that’s enough to justify 99 duds.
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But that strategy works, and since its first single malt expression in 1984 (which isn’t even that long ago), no brand has racked up as many iconic bottlings. That trophy case is what underpins the brand’s confidence to keep tossing out new release after new release with little to no fear of what might be thought of the brand. It’s really one of those bigger-is-better, any-publicity-is-good-publicity, Keeping-Up-With-The-Kardashian’s marketing strategy. And yet, as I’ve mentioned ad nauseam – it works.
The Macallan Gran Reserva is a simultaneously iconic yet confusing series of bottlings from our celebrity Speyside Scotch distillery.
Now, the Macallan has no shortfall of iconic bottlings – might even have the most quite honestly, and is really why it sometimes almost feels like Macallan knows it and couches it. It’s not all marketing – okay, maybe it is some of that, but nobody in Scotland does it better than Macallan. The distillery ensures that every year, it’s series after series, almost playing the Power Law, where if one strikes gold, that’s enough to justify 99 duds.
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Exclusive Newsletter to effortlessly stay ahead on major new bottle releases, trends & insights.
Premium 88 Bamboo Stories – access in-depth features, interviews and reviews not available on our main editorial.
Exclusive access to Subscriber-only podcasts, video content and posts.
Currently read by folks at Campari, Suntory, Kavalan, La Maison du Whisky and more.
Full access at only $2.80/month! It’s All You Need To Find Your Best Drink Yet! ???
But that strategy works, and since its first single malt expression in 1984 (which isn’t even that long ago), no brand has racked up as many iconic bottlings. That trophy case is what underpins the brand’s confidence to keep tossing out new release after new release with little to no fear of what might be thought of the brand. It’s really one of those bigger-is-better, any-publicity-is-good-publicity, Keeping-Up-With-The-Kardashian’s marketing strategy. And yet, as I’ve mentioned ad nauseam – it works.
Macallan if anything is a master of throwing out iconic releases that are almost geared at breaking auction records. It’s a bigger-is-better, any-publicity-is-good-publicity, Keeping-Up-With-The-Kardashian’s marketing strategy – that works. (Image Source: Bloomberg)
In fact, it sometimes even feels like Macallan wants its fair share of haters, so that it gets the people going. More talk – any talk – is good PR. And so the distillery daringly keeps on with the ever more luxury-centric releases (how many have come in Lalique crystal decanters now?), the ever bigger price tags, the seemingly permanent NAS fixtures.
So love it or hate it, Macallan wants you to think of them.
Back to the Gran Reserva, it’s one of those releases that have become an iconic part of the Macallan trophy case – the real Gran Reserva, that is.
A quick search will show you that the first Gran Reserva is the 1979 edition released in 1997. This would be followed by three more sequentially chronological editions – 1980, 1981 and 1981, which were released from 1999 to 2002, all at the bottom range of the permissible ABV for Scotch, 40% ABV (we can talk about this another time). All four editions carried a somewhat old school label with cursive typefaces and a vintage sort of aesthetic, not anything you’d see on a Macallan today.
And then somehow or rather, in 2007 and 2017, two more Gran Reserva’s popped out – a 12 Year Old and a 15 Year Old respectively, both donning a more modern aesthetic, closer to what we’d identify to be a Macallan today.
Now where the hell did these come from. They looked nothing like the original series and the 12 Year Old saw a massive outturn of 90,000 bottles, while the 15 Year Old had an outturn of 1,500 bottles. The 12 Year Old was bottled at 45.6% ABV and the 15 Year Old at 43% ABV. It’s as if the word consistency meant nothing.
As it turns out, the 12 Year Old Gran Reserva – or shall we call it “Gran Reserva” or Gran Gran Reserva; how do we even demarcate these? – was a Japan and Taiwan exclusive.
If you ask to get us excited about Japanese drinks, we will of course think of the joys of sake, awamori, and shōchū. But we are Master of Malt and whisky will always demand our attention too. Given that we’re shouting out all things Japanese at the moment, it seemed silly not to talk about whisky from Japan that we think you would enjoy. So here’s some recommendations.
Yamazaki 12 Year Old
Today we told the story of Yamazaki because Suntory’s flagship single malt whisky is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Of all the expressions Japan’s first and oldest malt distillery has released, the 12 year old is arguably the most defining. It was the first seriously marketed Japanese single malt whisky when it was launched in 1984 and remains a wonderfully elegant and smooth single malt packed with flavour.
Hakushu Distiller’s Reserve
Here from Hakushu (pronounced Hak-shoo) we have a Japanese whisky made from lightly-peated and heavily-peated with a bright, green, and herbaceous character that’s quite unique and really worth trying. It’s hard to think of an immediate comparison. If you think you’ve sampled it all but haven’t tasted this, you should remedy that.
This blog post has been nine months in the making! It’s a whisky-blog baby! [Scotch] and I were raised to make a big deal out of birthdays. Not necessarily in terms of parties and extravagance but we were raised to spend birthdays as a celebration of family. Because of that, we generally tend to plan for birthdays way too far in advance. Where am I going with this?
Rewind to Christmas of LAST YEAR. Just before Christmas, I found a bottle of Macallan Reflexion at a local DC Costco and knew I had to have it. Not for Christmas but for my 35th birthday so with some saved up cash (and few “benjamins” from the ‘rents) I purchased it as a future birthday gift knowing I wanted to do something crazy for my own birthday (for once, it’s rare that I celebrate myself and as you’ll see in a minute, I still managed to avoid it!)
Fast forward to the second to last weekend in August! I invited a handful of friends to join me in celebrating another year on this planet by sipping whisky with me! (Four of us have August birthdays!) We had a handful of bottles to sample that I’ve been collecting for the last two and a half years (including Pappy Van Winkle 23, Macallan Reflexion, Macallan 21 Fine Oak, Macallan Rare Cask, Michters 10 Bourbon, Glenfiddich 26, Bookers Rye, Highland Park Ice, and Jeffersons 25 year rye). I wanted to share them all with some of my friends.
It was just after some lovely locally sourced soup and a couple of distillery-made sandwiches that I sat down to sample the full The Macallan 1824 range, plus a special dram chosen in response to my whisky bucket list.
There was a typical The Macallan loveliness about it all; a screen gave me a big The Macallan welcome and the tasting mat has my name on it… a small but significant touch as it symbolises the care and attention the brand gives to those who they serve; the consumer.
I was guided through my six drams by Margaret, Brand Education Manager for The Macallan and someone who’s job I’m highly envious of, especially as her first ever visit to London was to visit Buckingham Palace and meet The Queen, of course.
DRAM ONE – NEW MAKE – 69.4% – FRESH OFF THE STILLS
Now, I’m a weird one as I love sampling new make, there is something obviously raw about it but also it gives an understanding of the inputs that have gone into the final drams we know and love once released by any brand really.
This one was surprisingly smooth, amazingly nice to sip, especially as its so strong.
Big, bold and oily, with an undertone of fresh fruit.
Applying the ‘palm test’ where you take a couple of drops of whisky and rub it in your palms to evaporate the alcohol and give you a truer sense of the taste profile revealed high notes of barley and wheat.
Pre-drams two to five I was made to do a ‘quicky nose’ of the rest of the range to start the nose and brain contemplating how they line up and how they differ. I was shocked at how the product tiers carried more and more sherry influence as I went along the line, from second fills to mixed first and second and eventually only first fill sherry casks. Lovely.
DRAM TWO – THE MACALLAN 1824 GOLD – 40%
The nose was also smooth, elements of citrus and not very whisky-like in my opinion, nothing that stood out and said ‘hey, I’ve been maturing in Scotland for years!’.
That being said it tracks with what other brands do with their entry level products, think Haig Club, by creating a whisky that can entice non-whisky drinkers into considering other products within the category – very smart.
The palate released more citrus notes, had a bit more punch about it with hints of vanilla and was very light in colour.
DRAM THREE – THE MACALLAN 1824 AMBER – 40%
The nose revealed lots of toffee apples, hints of spice, more new make influence strangely and definitely more sherry.
The palate brought out more and more sherry the longer I retained it in my mouth, or chewed it as us whisky folk say, with hints of orange, spice and an overall sense of Christmas about it.
DRAM FOUR – THE MACALLAN 1824 SIENNA – 43%
Only first fill sherry casks in this one, and you can really tell, Margaret and I agreed it is an absolute bargain for the £66 price tag attached to it.
The nose is all about berries, pineapple whereas the palate takes that towards dried fruits and rich citrus, a really interesting and complex dram. Worth a try.
DRAM FIVE – THE MACALLAN 1824 RUBY – 43%
Now we’re talking. All first fill sherry casks again chosen from the rarest available, and personally at £120 this is an incredible bargain to be had, I know – I bought one in the distillery shop on the way out I was so enthralled.
The nose actually smelt as if you had been transported back to warehouse number seven where these casks had been sleeping all these years. Quite raw, deep notes.
The palate is all about warming, relaxed notes highlighting dried fruits, caramel and chocolate. A very mature dram and one I will savour once I get that bottle opened!
DRAM SIX – 1979 GRAN RESERVA – 40%
Only bottled for four years, first filled European oak casks. Sealed bottles of this guy are now fetching around £1,600 on auction sites and I can tell why.
I wrote very few notes for this one, only that it was long and continually developing… happiness in a glass.
That concludes my tasting notes.
I thank The Macallan and in particular Margaret, Morag and Ian for being spectacular hosts and making me feel more than welcome, I already cannot wait to return to one of whisky’s most idyllic spiritual homes.
