THE MACALLAN NEW DISTILLERY

MOVING WITH THE TIMES

BRAND NEW MACALLAN DISTILLERY

RICH LEGACY: MAGHELLAN

The new Macallan distillery and visitor experience aims to integrate their whisky making heritage with the innovative vision that guides their future.

The Macallan distillery was founded in 1824 by Alexander Reid, a barley farmer and school teacher. The original name of the area was “Maghellan”, taken from the Gallic word “magh”, meaning fertile ground and “Ellan”, from the Monk St.Fillan - who held a close association with the church that stood in the grounds of The Macallan Estate until 1400. Farmers had been making whisky on their Speyside farms in the area for centuries, using their surplus barley during the quieter winter months.

Designed by internationally acclaimed architects, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, the evolution of the home of The Macallan embodies the care, passion and superior craftsmanship that goes into every bottle of their single malts. At the heart of The Macallan Estate, just 400m from their existing distillery, the new distillery and visitor experiences sits side by side their Spiritual Home, Easter Elchies House, and blends their past, present and future in a unique statement in architecture, construction and whisky-making.

After six years in the making, this is more than a distillery for The Macallan. A striking piece of contemporary architecture, the building and all of its elements embody the unique beauty of the birthplace of brand and whisky making roots - and mark a significant milestone and celebration of The Macallan story. Taking its cues from ancient Scottish hills and maximising the aesthetic beauty of the building, the distillery and visitor experience was designed to minimise the visual impact on the Speyside landscape whilst having the maximum awe-inspiring impact for whisky loving visitors from all over the world.

The character of The Macallan encompasses the strong sense of place at the heart of The Macallan distillery and estate, together with their long experience of distilling and maturing a single malt whisky.

The Macallan’s Curiously Small Stills are amongst the smallest on Speyside. Their unique size and shape give the spirit maximum contact with the copper, helping to concentrate the ‘new make’ spirit and provide the rich, fruity, full-bodied flavours characteristic of The Macallan. There are 24 of these spirit stills, crafted from copper, each holding an initial ‘charge’ of 3,900 litres.

With small stills the alcohol vapour doesn’t have very far to travel, enabling them to collect a dense and rich style of spirit. This transition of the spirit through the still is the shortest leg of the long and exceptional journey chosen to make in the unwavering pursuit of an exceptional single malt. They carefully select the finest quality spirit from their stills to ensure they create the best single malt whisky. This finest cut ensures they produce their signature viscous mouth-feel and fruity aroma and flavour. This small portion, or ‘cut’ is incredibly selective and one of the finest in the industry. It is primarily responsible for the full-bodied richness of The Macallan new make spirit. This clear colourless spirit is selected at just under 70% alcohol by volume. This distinctly robust and characterful ‘new make’ spirit is the starting point for all Macallan.

Their exceptional oak casks are the single greatest contributor to the outstanding quality, natural colours and distinctive aromas and flavours of The Macallan. These oak casks are crafted to their own specifications and account for up to 80% of the final aromas and flavours of The Macallan. Because of this, they spend more per cask than any other distillery in sourcing, crafting, seasoning and caring for its casks.

All colour in The Macallan whiskies, bottled by the distillery, is natural. Only the interaction of the ‘new make’ spirit with the oak of the maturation casks delivers the rich and natural diversity of colour throughout the range, from light oak through to darkest mahogany. These natural colours remain ‘fixed’, as opposed to artificial colour which fades relatively quickly in bright sunlight. Great skill is required by the Master Whisky Maker to achieve consistency of natural colour from bottling to bottling.

From humble beginnings, the brand has risen to become the leading international single malt by value and enjoys leading positions in some of the world’s most significant Scotch whisky markets including the USA, Taiwan, and Japan.

Edrington is investing £500 million in the brand of which the £140 million distillery is the centrepiece. This programme increases investment in whisky, warehousing, and particularly in The Macallan’s signature sherry-seasoned oak casks.

The first whisky ran through the stills in December 2017 and the visitor experience opened its doors to the public on Saturday, 2 June 2018.  

The new distillery will enable production of The Macallan to increase by a third if required. The new stills were crafted by Scottish coppersmiths Forsyths, who have been making the brand’s distinctive, ‘curiously small’ stills for The Macallan since the 1950s.

The striking piece of contemporary architecture is cut into the slope of the land, taking its cues from ancient Scottish hills. The undulating timber roof structure is one of the most complicated timber roof structures in the world, comprising 380,000 individual components.

The iconic subterranean distillery, situated on the Easter Elchies estate in Craigellachie, is already producing spirit for the Macallan single malt brand after the original adjacent site was decommissioned in October 2017.

With 36 copper pot stills – 15 more than the previous site – the new distillery will enable production of the Macallan single malt to increase by up to one-third if required. As The Macallan has grown globally it has been very important to ensure sustenance of demand for this wonderful amber liquid.

The most innovative aspect of the distillery – and the most challenging from a production perspective – is its layout. Macallan’s 36 stills – the biggest single order from coppersmith Forsyths are arranged in three circular ‘pods’ of 12, sharing space with 21 stainless steel washbacks (fermenters), while the site also features a single 17-tonne mash tun, said to be the largest in Scotland. Despite the increase in size, the character of Macallan’s whisky will remain the same.

Each pod contains eight spirit and four wash stills, alongside the washbacks which control and contain a fermentation period of 55 hours. That many stills in one room is bound to generate an exceptional amount of heat, impacting the success of fermentation within those adjacent washbacks, a process which is extremely temperature-sensitive. As such, the original distillery’s wooden and stainless steel washbacks have been rejected in favour of fermenters fitted with a new external cooling system that allows for greater control over temperature during fermentation. Had the technology not been available, the entire distillery design would have to be redrawn.

The original distillery, which was first licensed to distill in 1824 and has been extended many times in the last 200 years, will be mothballed for the foreseeable future.

THE MACALLAN IN NUMBERS:

15,000,000 litres of spirit each year

180,000 different components to make the roof

15,000 tonnes of concrete to fill foundations

952 bottles to sample in the bar

840 bottles in the brand wall

398 bottles in the archive, plus 19 decanters, and four flasks

120m long, 24m high

36 copper pot stills

21 washbacks

Part of the visitor experience is Eat@TheMacallan, which offers the finest Scottish produce with a twist, taking inspiration from the long-standing relationship The Macallan has enjoyed with the Roca brothers, who run twice-voted best restaurant in the world El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain. 

The Macallan Fakes Controversies

The emergence a fake 1878 bottle of Macallan single malt Scotch whisky at a hotel the Hotel Waldhaus am See, St Moritz recalled a wider-ranging scandal of the 1990s and the early 2000s, an uncanny sense of déjà vu. This was the season when antique bottles appeared in hordes of obscure expressions, previously unheard-of 19th-century bottlings, whiskies from long-closed Campbeltown distilleries, etc.

The Hotel Waldhaus am See fake

One single malt stood above all others in terms of collectability: Macallan. No surprise, then, that a large number of 19th- and early 20th-century Macallans began to appear on the market. Between 2000 and 2002, Macallan acquired about 100 antique ‘Macallan’ bottles at auction and from private collectors, in turn offering some of these for resale via its own online auction. After a series of tests, some were withdrawn, with Macallan losing face. But then, it was a case of caveat emptor!

The Macallan Distillery 1824 Series ‘Gold’ Single Malt Whisky is not immune from controversy, presently surrounding the decision to structure 1824’s releases by colour, naming them based on their hue, not vintage or style.  Colour is the primary demarcation for the “Gold,” “Amber,” “Sienna,” and “Ruby” whiskies in this line. The older the whisky, the darker the colour, and each release in the series maintains consistent colour over different batches. Critics berated Macallan, calling this a backhanded trick to blend in newer, less aged whiskies without lowering the price, to make more whisky, faster, cheaper and with fewer losses, hotly contested by The Macallan Distillery. I don't see where this fuss about colours comes in; the trend was started by Johnnie Walker in 1909! In fact, the Double Black Label and Platinum Label were introduced only in 2010. As far as quality or chicanery goes, there are appropriate forums to look into the allegations.