Macallan 16 Year Old SMWS Flamenco Fruitcake 24.188 62.5%

The nose danced in with rich wood oils, walnut and dried figs, swirling to the snap of castanets at a Spanish fiesta. Hints of party rings, mango and raisins tapped out a rhythmic paso doble alongside sugar puffs and pink wafers. The palate waltzed through brandy butter melting over flaming fruitcake, with port and chocolate ganache dipping in and out like a graceful flamenco twirl. With water, orange peel and poached pears played lead to tobacco and almond skins, while madeira cake and walnut added a hearty tapas plate of indulgence. Lastly, smooth nougat and praline joined a toffee and nut-filled chocolate bar lingering like a late-night fandango encore. Olé! At 10 years of age, we combined selected casks from the same distillery. We then returned the single malt into a variety of different casks to develop further. This is one of those casks.

The Macallan distillery in the Speyside region is renowned across the globe for creating some incredible and highly desirable single malt whisky. Founded in 1824 the long history of Macallan was enhanced when in 2018 the owners Edrington Group declared open their newly constructed distillery. Designed by internationally acclaimed architect Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners the structural genius of the finished building has to be seen to be believed. It is outstanding and offers amazement and delight to its many visitors. The roof made of five undulating domes are grass covered and are designed to imitate the flowing hillside landscape behind. The reception area in the first dome looks out over a fabulous view of the river Spey. The remaining four domes house the stills, washbacks and one enormous mash tun. The production capacity is now a huge 15 million litres of alcohol.

The core range has three great styles. The first is the Sherry Oak represented by 12, 18, 25 and 30 years old. Then theres the Triple Cask a combination of whisky matured in bourbon and sherry casks. Thirdly there is the Double Cask consisting of Gold non age, 12, 15,18 and 30 year old. The Double Cask whiskies are matured in sherry casks from American as well as European oak. Also part of the core releases is the Macallan Estate made from barley actually grown on their own Macallan Estate. Macallan are always announcing new limited expressions and in 2022 the oldest ever bottled Scottish single malt, an 81 year old The Reach was released. 

Discover more great Speyside Whisky here