Macallan Tasting

Last night I attended a Macallan tasting in the City Tavern Club of DC in Georgetown. Apparently this is a pretty regular event, but it took an email from the Chicago Tribune of all places for me to find out about it. As you might expect, the event is a gathering for people to sample whiskies (for free, natch) and hear about the distillery and the whiskies from the brand ambassador. Of course, Macallan, like others, is hoping to recruit new drinkers of whisky and the Macallan in particular. There were about 130 people at the event jammed into seats around cocktail tables. I was wondering what the Macallan hoped its yield would be for such an event, i.e., what is their measurement of success -- one new drinker? Ten? I don't know and didn't have a chance to ask because we were ushered out at the end to make way for a second sitting that evening.

The event itself lasts just about an hour (there is 30 minutes of hors d'oevres and the Macallan 10 year old fine oak prior to the formal presentation) and consists of tasting four more Macallans, so there isn't a lot of time to linger over each drink, so my impressions are highly superficial. After the 10 y.o., we tried the 12 year old sherry oak, the 15 and 17 year old fine oak, and wrapped up with the 18 year old sherry oak. The 15 and 17 year olds seemed a little too light to me, particularly the 15 year old lacks a bit in character. The 18 year old is a substantial and tasty scotch and I would definitely drink it again. I would not, however, buy it purely based on price. At about $120-130 a bottle, it is far more expensive than other great 18 year olds on the market (like the glorious Highland Park). This is largely due to the sherry oak casks that Macallan directly sources and the manner of distilling through many runs (Macallan says they only use 16% of the spirit run in the final product, the rest is recycled through the distillery).

I applaud the Macallan for this evening and for exposing people to their whiskies.