Macallan – 1979 18 Year Old Gran Reserva (70cl, 40%)

Macallan – 1979 18 Year Old Gran Reserva is a whisky from Macallan (Speyside). Aged 18 years, bottled at 40% ABV, 70cl. The Macallan distillery was founded in 1824 by Alexander Reid, a barley farmer and school teacher. Now owned by the Edrington Group, The Macallan prides itself on its Six Pillars, which include its curiously small stills, very narrow ‘cut’ of new make spirit and exceptional cask management. It is the most sought after whisky for collectors. A new £140 million subterranean distillery and visitor centre on the Easter Elchies estate was opened to the public in the summer of 2018 and has since won several awards for its architectural quality; with its exciting features including glass walls of vintage whiskies, a circular pod of copper pot stills, and a Boutique reflecting those in Dubai and Heathrow airports. Gran Reserva: Macallan’s first Gran Reserva, released in 1997, took their standard 18-Year-Old and turned the sherry all the way up to 11. Three more vintage releases followed, and they have become some of the most sought-after expressions in the distillery’s back catalogue of already highly sought-after whiskies. The Gran Reserva name has since been resurrected in 2007 for a 12-Year-Old sherry bomb produced for the Asian market, and again in 2017 for a 15-Year-Old that was sold via an online ballot. Who knows when it might crop up again? Please examine the images of the bottle.