Macallan Rare Cask - Review
Age: No age statement
Barrel type: First fill an refill ex-sherry casks
Region: Speyside
ABV: 43%
Price: $225-300
Additional details: chill filtered, natural color
Macallan Rare Cask poses an interesting conundrum for a whisky lover. From the perspective of critics of no-age-statement whiskies, the proliferation of such whiskies began as a "rot" from the bottom of distillery's product lines, resulting in alternative expressions to, or outright replacements of, their base whisky. Macallan itself largely eliminated its iconic Macallan 12 (heresy of heresies!) in much of the world, including Europe, and replaced it with some color-coded expressions with names like Ruby and Gold. However, that corruption has now seeped upwards as corporate leadership has realized that people are willing to pay ultra-premium prices without a corresponding premium age statement (like 20 years or more).
Sometimes, this is perfectly fine -- Ardbeg releases annual special editions that easily command $125 or more, without an age statement, and they can be spectacular. At other times, distilleries are leaning on their marketing department's beautiful writing and one's own cognitive dissonance to "feel" like the whisky is amazing, even if it might not hold up well when tasted blind. The danger posed by the lack of an age statement is that one just doesn't know what's coming. Is this a lot of 8-year old whisky with 10% of 21-year old whiskey mixed in to lend it some of the notes of a more mature expression, but muted and diluted? Or is it a respectable mix where 10% might be 8-year old whisky, lending some much-needed vibrancy, combined with 50% 15-17-year old whisky, and then 40% 20-plus-year old whisky? That kind of expression will taste very different, and could well be worth the cost.
Rare Cask, and Macallan as a whole, are pushing this trend as far as it can go. Because Macallan is one of the most recognized brand names in the whisky world, the distillery faces a high-road, low-road dilemma. The high road would be maintaining the quality of their existing expressions and particularly beloved whiskies, such as Macallan Cask Strength. Let me give you a spoiler -- Macallan Cask Strength no longer exists. The low road, and the one the distillery has ended up taking, is to flood the market with no-age-statement releases that come accompanied by a lot of good advertising work. Now, some of these expressions are still going to be very good, or even amazing -- Macallan's product is just that good. But it's become a distillery whose prices set the consumer up for disappointment as often as amazement.
Appearance: Google what the bottle looks like, as I'm just reviewing a small sample today. It's fancy, right? It looks heavy, doesn't it? Rare Cask comes in a bottle that looks like it could double as a decanter and probably required the work of at least a fairly competent glassmaker. It also comes in a special, French-window-esque display box. That actually makes me a bit wary. When a distillery makes a whisky that looks like it's intended to be for conspicuous consumption, rather than for old-fashioned actual consumption, I get worried.
That being said, in the bottle or the glass, it's a lovely, deep, orange shade. In the picture above, that's in a clear bottle, not a tinted one.
Nose: This is a classic Macallan sherried whisky. The distillery claims that a high proportion of the casks used are first-fill and, based on the scent, I believe it. There are clear, relatively pure notes of cherry, vanilla, sherry, and dry chocolate (kind of like the chocolate shavings or parts that are left after you've eaten most of a bar). I also sense some musty oak, so this certainly smells like an aged expression, not a young one, and older than 15 years on average. I even detect some brine or iodine, a note I more commonly find in Islay scotches. I'm not sure where it's coming from, but it's a surprising touch. The nose is the best part of this scotch.
Palate: Graham cracker, again some sherry and cherry, hazelnut, raspberries and other rich, sweet berries, and some more chocolate. Again, oak spice indicates that the average age of this dram is significantly older than Macallan 12, so -- say what you will -- it's not scamming us too badly on the age. The palate doesn't impress as much as the nose, however, and I'm left wondering what this would have felt like at 46 to 48 percent. One of my pet peeves is ultra-premium expressions that come down to 40 or 43 percent. When you're paying $225+ for a whisky, you want as little of that as possible to be $1 a gallon spring water, right?
Finish: At the end, there are flavors of chocolate and dried fruits, particularly dates, and a bit of freshness from a mixture of mint and ginger.
Value for Money and Final Impressions: Look, this is a good whisky. It has a famous brand name. You can show the bottle off to your friends, family, and guests. Those facts all add some value, with the amount depending on the individual consumer's preferences. But, for me, I can't justify spending $250 or more on this whisky.
The reason I included a watch in my picture above is that, in many respects, the evolution of Macallan's line and the no-age-statement trend in general reflects the development of the mechanical watch market. Even for relatively small-market luxury goods, the vast majority of consumers aren't true enthusiasts, much less experts (and I'd place myself in the former camp for both hobbies). Most people buy such goods to experience something luxurious and to be seen as having them. In the watch world, this means that a lot of quite high-end brands, such as IWC, can get away with using generic mass-manufactured movements with no ill consequence. Most people just don't care. The same calculation clearly is happening to the conglomerates that now own most whiskymakers (indeed, some of them, like LVMH, are empires that also have a prominent watch arm). Dispensing with age statements and raising prices to stratospheric levels is helping business, not hurting it. And, as long as that's the case, real enthusiasts will need to pick and choose their spots.
At the upper end, there are some spectacular sherry-aged whiskies, and many with age statements. I haven't yet had the pleasure of trying GlenDronach 18, but some people absolutely swear by it, and it can be had for $150 a bottle. The Dalmore 18, which I have tried, is a great scotch, and I even thought of it as slightly overpriced at $175-200. Macallan Rare Cask and Dalmore 18 aren't exactly interchangeable flavor profiles -- the former is richer, while the latter is sweeter and fresher -- but I'd happily save the money and go with Dalmore's offering. And there are others I haven't tried, like the well-reviewed Balvenie 15 Sherry Cask (which comes in at a nearly ideal 47.8% ABV for this kind of scotch). I'm hard-pressed to recommend Rare Cask given the wealth of competition that it has. $150 is the right price point for this scotch.
Rating: B+