The Macallan's New, Ultra-Rare Scotch Is Incredibly Old and Expensive
Throughout the past decade The Macallan has been busy enshrining itself as the name in ultra-luxury Scotch whisky. But the storied legacy of this Speyside malt-maker actually stretches back for centuries. In fact, 2024 marks the 200th birthday of the brand, and it’s eager to celebrate the milestone with a new release in its ongoing Tales of the Macallan series.
Tales of The Macallan Volume II isn’t some everyday bottle you can rundown at your local liquor store. The whisky was collected from a 1949 vintage and wrested from cask some 73 years later. By that time, what remained of the stock was only enough to fill 344 bespoke Lalique decanters. That precious package will be sold at select boutiques—as well as at The Macallan Estate, in Craigellachie, Scotland—for a cool $89,000 per unit.
If your pockets are adequately deep and you’re lucky enough to encounter one in the wild, you’ll be met by a 44.8 percent ABV liquid that’s especially auburn in hue and abnormally smoky in flavor compared to the typical house style. This is all by design, according to Euan Kennedy, The Macallan’s lead whisky maker. He took inspiration from the distillery’s original founder, Alexander Reid, whose surname means “the Red One” in Scots.
Courtesy of The Macallan
“Displaying beautiful tones of bronzed oak and subtle red hues, this rare and unique single-malt whisky possesses an incredible complexity achieved through age and patient maturation,” says Kennedy. “Enjoying a lingering smokiness redolent of whiskies of Alexander’s time, it's a fitting tribute to his living legacy as we celebrate our 200th anniversary year.”
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The new release is a followup to Tales of the Macallan Volume I, which debuted in the summer of 2021. The original was more of a citrus-forward affair, though equally as elusive and sporting nearly the same age and ABV. Also like its predecessor, the new edition is inlayed within hand-crafted leather-bound tomes. Volume II comprises 800 pages worth of paper, arranged by an artisan printer out of Paris. More than just a set piece, each chapter of the book actually tells tales of Alexander Reid and features illustrative accompaniment from renowned British illustrator Andrew Davidson.
Some of his drawings have been cobbled together into a zoetrope-style animation, which you can now watch below. Fret not, if you don’t have $89,000 to spend on a single bottle of booze. You can still enjoy The Macallan cartoon for free.
At any rate, you’re just as unlikely to actually sip Tales of the Macallan Volume II as someone who manages to purchase it. Because most of the folks who do, will preserve it as a collectible keepsake rather than drinkable dram. It’s lamentable, but a tale we keep having to tell in this modern era of ultra-luxury spirits.
