Skip to main content
wine review

A new Macallan addition, this "double cask" combines spirits matured in the two main types of oak tree: American and European. Generally speaking, the former tends to be sweeter and stronger than the latter, with bigger vanilla-coconut flavours. Both types of cask were first filled with, and later emptied of, Spanish sherry for the classically rich, rounded Macallan flavour profile. In other words: no ex-bourbon wood, as is the case with most Scottish whiskies.

Medium-full-bodied, this whisky is luxuriously oily, with a fat mid-section and sweet, syrupy peach, orange marmalade and cider-apple fruit as well as toffee set against a firm backbone and a charred, smoky essence.

A fine, back-to-basics Macallan for lovers of the classic sherry-influenced style. Available in Ontario at the above price, $85.99 in British Columbia (on sale for $81.99 until Nov. 25), various prices in Alberta, $99.95 in Manitoba, $100 in Quebec, $99.99 in Nova Scotia, $99.99 in Newfoundland.

Interact with The Globe