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Article - Whisky
Luxury For The Ultra-Rich: Macallan The Reach Is The World's Oldest Whisky
Two years after its official release, the whisky world is still buzzing about the unobtainable The Reach. We have sold several.
Whisky Production Under The Wings Of History
1940 was a turbulent time in the world. German troops rolled across the border into the Netherlands, Belgium and later France. Sir Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain. Soon after, Italy declares war on France and Britain. An all-out war was brewing, and the world would never be the same again.
Despite turmoil and the heavy clouds of war hanging overhead, daily life went on. It was no different at The Macallan in the Scottish Highlands, where despite restrictions on timber and the withdrawal of production capacity, production was kept alive.
At The Macallan, like so many other years, whisky was casked, but few would have expected what the cask that was filled that day would turn into.
The Macallan The Reach - A Highlight In Whisky History
The Macallan stands for utterly unique and fabulous quality and is dedicated to craft, history and tradition to a degree that no other distillery can match. The Macallan is renowned for an impressive back catalogue of old casks of an age and quality not seen elsewhere. As a result, The Macallan is also behind an impressive number of releases of extremely old, rare and sought-after whiskies in a league of their own.
A good example of this is The Macallan Red Collection, a collection of Macallan 40 YO, 50 YO and 60 YO, later joined by a 71 YO, 74 YO and a 78 YO - six extremely rare bottles, especially the latter three, with the 78 YO at the time being the oldest whisky ever released.
That record has now been surpassed with The Macallan The Reach 81 YO 1940, marking an absolute highlight in The Macallan's 200-year history.
A Tribute To The People Behind It
Bottled from a single sherry oak cask, this extremely rare single malt whisky exudes a deep reddish-brown nuance that testifies to its astonishing depth and complexity.
Only 288 sets were produced and come with a bottle of 81 YO The Macallan in a beautiful mouth-blown crystal decanter, a custom-designed wooden cabinet of the highest quality carpentry and finally a massive bronze figure of three hands: One hand represents former board member of The Macallan, Allan Shiach, whose grandfather headed the distillery when the cask was filled. Another hand represents Master Whisky Maker, Kirsteen Campbell, who was responsible for the release. The final hand represents the workers at the distillery during the challenging times of 1940.
In contrast to the time and society around it, the cask enjoyed peace for more than eight decades before its destiny as the world's oldest whisky was announced as 81 YO The Reach.
What Does The World's Oldest Whisky Taste Like?
The Reach is not only extraordinary in its design and packaging. The content, which is very much what it is all about, is unique.
On the nose, dark chocolate, a little cinnamon, peat, plums, leather, redcurrants and resin appear.
In the mouth you experience a firework display of caramel, blackberry jam, grilled pineapple, a little liquorice, nutmeg and coal. It all ends with an intense smoky sweetness.
At RareWine we have had the pleasure of tasting The Reach on a few occasions and despite the hype, it lives up to expectations and more.
The Reach
How Long Does It Take To Make Real Scotch Whisky?
The short and simple answer is three years: that is the amount of time whisky has to sit in a cask before it can be called true Scotch whisky. But for it to be good, it takes a long time. A really long time.
The casks used to mature the whisky are extremely important for the quality of the final product and The Macallan is famous for its outstanding cask program.
The Macalllans sherry casks are produced from European and American oak. The optimum age for these trees before felling is 100 years and 70 years respectively. The wood is then air-dried for a minimum of one year. This is followed by a further six-year process before the barrel is ready to be used. After that, it is just a question of how good the cask is and how long it is allowed to rest. In the case of The Reach, 81 years.
The answer to the initial question can thus be rephrased as: Long time. A really long time.
RareWine Specialises In The Ultra-Rare And Hyper-Exclusive
It is no secret that The Macallan is behind some of the most impressive whiskies the world has ever seen, and The Macallan is also the title of some of the most spectacular bottles and collections we have sourced and traded over the years.
Lalique Six Pillars Collection
In 2018, we were able to reveal that we were the first in the Nordic region to present and offer a complete set of the six official The Macallan Lalique bottles and thus a complete set of "Six Pillars Collection". Bottles we have had several times since then, both individually and in complete sets.
The Red Collection
In 2021, we unveiled that we were the first in Europe to collect not one, but two complete sets of the extremely rare The Macallan The Red Collection. Soon after, there were already buyers for the sets and ownership was passed to two different European investors/collectors.
Both collections are currently valued at more than €600,000 per set.
The Reach
In October 2022, the first The Reach went on sale at a Sotheby's auction house in London where The Macallan offered the bottle with the aim of raising money for charity (and getting some publicity, probably...). An anonymous British collector won the auction with a bid of just under €285,000. Since their release, the scarce bottles have been virtually unobtainable and extremely slowly distributed in highly allocated quantities. As specialists in the ultra-rare and hyper-exclusive, we have already had a couple of sets passing through our company, pairing availability with luxury client requests.
If you have any requests for investment in or inquiries about acquiring something extraordinary, extremely rare, or anything else, we are at your disposal an always available to help make the impossible possible. Fill out the form below and we will contact you as soon as possible.
