The Macallan Cask Strength
Various bottles of liquor seem to find their way onto our doorstep on a pretty regular basis, and recently we were delighted when a bottle of the new
The Macallan Cask Strength single malt scotch showed up. We're partial to a spot of The Macallan.
This whisky is bottled at 58.6% alcohol by volume (117.2-proof in the USA), and that's not all, folks: This bottling hasn't been chill-filtered. What
does that mean to you? If whisky isn't chilled, then filtered, before bottling, the producer runs the risk of it becoming cloudy if it gets too
cold?there's nothing wrong with the product, but since most consumers don't know that, the whisky guys play at being safe rather than sorry.
At high proof, though, the risk of what's known in the trade as a "chill haze," gets less and less, and at almost 60% abv, the risk is almost nil, so
the good folk at The Macallan weren't taking too much of a risk when they issued this bottling, but by not chill-filtering, the company is offering
more flavor in the bottle. The fact is, that the substances removed by chill-filtration are flavorful compounds, so let's have more bottlings such as
this one. What's that? What did it taste like? We'll tell you.
The Macallan Cask Strength, at bottle-proof, is extremely spicy, with predominant cinnamon/raisin aromas, a silky/buttery texture, and a palate that
follows the nose, but here we found some honey notes, too. The finish? It goes on for ever. With a little spring water, the scotch gets even spicier,
and far more complex. We'll give it a rating of 96?highly recommended.
We should add one more fact about this bottling, though, and it's something that not many people take into consideration when purchasing high-proof
spirits: If you start off with a 750-ml bottle of this whisky, and add enough spring water to bring it down to 40% alcohol by volume (abv)?the proof
at which most spirits are bottled?you'll end up with 1.098.75 liters of The Macallan Cask Strength. For around $50 (we've seen it advertised for
less), we figure this is quite a bargain.
For those of you who, like us, still think in ounces:
750 ml = 25.3605 ounces
1.09875 liters = 37.1531 ounces, or 1.161 quarts.
And since we still have our palm-top handy:
At $50 per bottle, you're paying $1.9712 per undiluted ounce, and $1.3458 per ounce at 40% abv.
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