This sample of Macallan Cask Strength 10 Years supposedly comes from a late 80s bottle. I couldn’t find a timeline of when this whisky started showing up in-market, but I always thought it was the early 90s. The buddy who gave me this sample knows his whisky so I’m going to assume he’s correct in his dating which means we’ve gone back yet another decade in our three-glass-exploration of Cask Strength Mac.
There’s not much to say about this I haven’t already. It’s Macallan, it was aged for 10 years in 100% Oloroso casks and it’s obviously awesome. On to the Macallan Cask Strength 10 Years review!
Macallan Cask Strength 10 Years Info
Region: Speyside, Scotland
Distiller: Macallan
Mashbill: 100% Malted Barley
Cask: ex-Sherry (Oloroso)
Age: 10 Years
ABV: 58.8%
Cask Strength | Non-Chill Filtered | Natural Color
Price: NA – Auction, Specialty Store or Private Seller
Macallan Cask Strength 10 Years Review
EYE
Ruby
NOSE
Deep sherry, smarties, dried dark fruit, cocoa, spice, orange peels and a bit of sweet tobacco and leather.
PALATE
Heavy sherry, smarties, dried dark fruit, cocoa, leather, spice, orange peels and a bit of sweet tobacco, roasted malt and chalk.
FINISH
Long slow fade of cocoa, dark fruit, spice and roasted malt.
BALANCE, BODY & FEEL
Well balanced, full body and a heavy oily feel
OVERALL
Macallan Cask Strength 10 Years is REALLY good. It’s a solid representation of the previous glory of Macallan and a fitting tribute to a house that was once known for putting out some of the most brilliant, deeply flavored and robustly aromatic whiskies on the planet.
Macallan have dropped a LOT in quality over the recent years and don’t currently have anything I think is worth the price they ask; this obviously factors into the secondary prices for these older bottles. I don’t think Macallan, or any distilleries, are purposely putting out low-quality products, they’ve just become a victim of their own success and keep the quality up with the quantity of their demand.
To further illustrate this point, a couple months ago we did a blind sherry tasting and in that tasting was the current Mac 25 and it was unanimously the worst of the night by a wide margin with a 1985 bottling of the Mac 18 taking the night. A more recent Mac 18 hit the middle with some Glendronachs filling the rest of the slots except the #2 slot which went to the Ohishi cask 1257.
I’m sure if we had a bottle of this Macallan Cask Strength 10 Years there it would have been in the top 3 no problem, but nothing they put out now would come even close. It’s sad, really really sad.
SCORE: 92/100 (A-)
