Tales of the Macallan II
One of the most famous and extremely prestigious Scotch whisky brands, The Macallan, has just released the second edition of whisky as part of its series of Tales of the Macallan. Highly collectible series aims to commemorate important figures in the distillery's history.
Tales of the Macallan II is intended as a tribute to Alexander Reid, founder of the distillery. At the same time, it is an important highlight of the current year of Macallan's bicentennial celebrations. It is to Reid that the distillery owes the distinctive shape of its low, squat alembics, thanks to which the whisky produced here is characterized by a full of character, complex taste. To this day, their shape and size is said to be one of the "six pillars of Macallan wisdom".
The whisky in question flowed from the alembics in 1949 and was bottled in 2022. Euan Kennedy, who serves as Macallan's chief whisky wizard, has prepared 344 bottles of this age-old liquor. The whisky went into specially designed and prepared Lalique crystal decanters. These in turn are packaged in a specially prepared almanac, created by London-based bookbinders Shepherds, Sangorski & Sutcliffe and Zaehnsdorf. Each chapter of the book tells the story of Alexander Reid and is lavishly illustrated with artwork by British artist Andrew Davidson.
The purchase of each of the 344 decanters is an expenditure of about $89,000.
First edition whisky Tales of the Macallan appeared on the market in 2021. The extraordinarily elegant decanter contained a beverage distilled in 1950, and was dedicated to the memory of the first owner of the Easter Elchies estate, where The Macallan is located today. In her case, too, there was talk of a Lalique decanter and a richly illustrated hand-bound almanac.
The Macallan distillery is one of the distillery icons of Speyside, a Scotch whisky-producing region boasting the location of more than 50 distilleries, including the most famous and prestigious ones. It was founded in 1824, a year after a bill was passed in the British Parliament creating the conditions for the development of Scottish distilling for the first time in history and defining Scotch whisky for years to come.
The Macallan brand boasts innumerable laurels, and among the most expensive bottles of whisky ever sold at auction, the palette of precedence is held by the products of this distillery. Just last November, another price record was broken at a Sotheby's auction. The Macallan Valerio Adami Edition 1926 60yo sold for £2,187,500 (£1.75 million plus auction house commission).
In July 2019, a new, thoroughly modern distillery was launched here, costing a not inconsiderable £140 million to build. The unusual plant, integrated into the landscape of the Spey Valley, is equipped with 36 alembics and has an annual potential capacity of 15 million pure alcohol per year. Both the appearance of the distillery and its Visitor Center, as well as the attractions prepared for the distillery's guests, are unparalleled in the Scottish distilling industry.
For some time, the House of Whisky Online offered the first installment of the Tales of the Macallan series. It did, however, find a happy buyer, but from this fact it is easy to conclude that and perhaps in the future we can expect this edition, which is just hitting the market and is dedicated to Alexander Reid, Tales of the Macallan II. Before that, however, we invite fans of the brand to take a look at our offer, in which you can still find today extremely rare, old and collector's editions of The Macallan. There are also some among them that are recommended for more daily consumption. So we invite not only collectors.
[29.01.2024 / photo: The Macallan]