Macallan – 1950 'The Malt' 30 Year Old Atkinson Baldwin & Co London (1980s) (75cl, 43%)

This is a 30-year-old Speyside single malt from Macallan, distilled in 1950 and bottled for Atkinson, Baldwin & Co in 1980 or 1981 at 43%. It belongs to what is now called the Handwritten Label series, a group of vintage Macallans bottled under licence at the turn of the 1980s, shortly before the distillery took its official bottlings in-house and launched the Anniversary Malts in 1983. It is described as rancio-heavy, waxy and tropical fruity, sitting between the earthy, coal-hearth character of the 1950s and the resinous, peaty, fruit-rich style of the 1940s.