Macallan's 1824 range has done away with age-statements and instead focuses on the colour of the whisky. The concept being that the older the whisky is the darker it will be... Regardless of how true this really is, it's certainly a great whisky packed with assertive vanilla and citrus flavours.
This bottle was part of a private collection - if you'd like more detailed photos just get in touch!
This burnished gold spirit presents a lemon citrus nose, the orange peel and an interlacing sweetness that softens but doesn't eliminate the zest. A quiet note of vanilla is followed by dark chocolate - more assertive, yet not overly so - with a lingering floral and light oak notes.
Citrus and boiled sweets rule the palate, along with hints of ginger and cinnamon, while soft oak tones reveal toasted apples.
The finish is medium sweet, malty and slightly dry.
I've been drinking,Mac for a very long time and this one is one of my new favourites ! There's some silly comments here from some people that really are gonna miss out on a stunning dram ! PEOPLE , stop being snobbish ! The wonderful guys that make whisky know what they're doing . Sorry I've wondered off track . In a word STUNNING ! Drink this or miss out on a great dram !
and if I was rich it would only be one, and that's taste. Any numbers or writing on the bottle is just marketing, even if it's justified. A nice whisky will speak for itself, which is why I check these reviews.
The reviewer above stated it perfectly, but more needs to be said. The whisky industry can't keep up with demand of all the young novices who are coming in thinking age is everything. By law, the age on a whisky is the youngest whisky in the blend. Yes, single malts are BLENDS, unless it states its a single "cask". "Single Malt" just means all the whiskeys blended come from one distillery. A whisky isn't good cause it's consistently aged well. It's good cause the master blenders consistently BLEND it well. But if a million people want a great 12yo then eventually you won't have any good 12yo whisky left and you need to add some 13yo-40+ to balance it. So if they need to declare the youngest whisky, then they end up needing to charge low crappy 12yo prices for a whisky with 40yo whisky in it. Removing the age allows them to charge a bit more, while still giving us a reasonably priced whisky that tastes good. Sure naming it after the color is a little dumb, but don't hurry and crawl to Glenlivet, because they'll most likely lose age statements too in the not-too-distant future.
Most people don't realize that age statements are actually a fairly recent thing in the whisky industry. I think its a shame, because people then associate age with quality, which is not the case at all. A whisky can be old, dark and shit. Age is not synonymous for quality, its just there to reassure the snobs. Real connoisseurs use their taste buds and don't give two shits about age. Macallan is making a very smart marketing move and Gold is actually quite excellent.
Take away the age statement and it could be anything. So no more Macallan for me, I'm off to buy some Glenlivet; a whisky that says exactly "what's in the tin".
