For more than three centuries, The Macallan Edition 4 has called the Easter Elchies House, perched on a ridge above the banks of the River Spey, their spiritual home. Sir Lewis Grant of Grant rented the house to Alexander Reid in 1820. As a farmer, Reid quickly planted barley in the fields around the house. He then built the first authorized distillery on the property, which he called Macallan after an old church that had burned down in the fifteenth century. Reid would ferment and distill his excess grains into whisky during the winter, when the farm was not as busy. This whisky was frequently consumed straight from the still or sold to tourists who were traveling through the town.

Currently, 95 of the 370 acres of the Macallan Estate are used for the production of Minstrel barley (an acre yields around 2.5 tons of barley year, which is sufficient to make 1,800 bottles of The Macallan). To produce a rich and fatty whisky, the distillery also enters into agreements with farmers to buy barley that is high in starch and low in nitrogen.

In late August and early September, the barley is harvested, malted, and then mashed in one of The Macallan’s two mash tuns, a process that takes four to eight hours. Following fermentation with a specially cultivated yeast, the barley is twice distilled using copper-pot stills at The Macallan. As a catalyst, the copper that makes up the stills promotes the production of delicious esters while reducing contaminants like sulfur. Furthermore, production manager Alexander Tweedie claims that the oddly tiny stills, which are among “the smallest stills within the Scotch whisky industry,” yield a whisky with a rich, greasy flavor.

After distillation, the Macallan distillers separate the whisky’s heads and tails and reserve around 16% of the spirit to put into maturation casks. This “cut,” one of the highest of any Scottish distillery, makes the whisky richer and fuller.

In contrast to its predecessors, Editions No. 1 and 2, which encapsulate the essence of the cask-spirit relationship, and Edition No. 3, which emphasizes the aromas, Edition No. 4 reveals the whisky’s structure, highlighting the lengths The Macallan goes to in producing single malts and drawing comparisons to the construction of the new Macallan Distillery. The Edition No. 4, which was made from a blend of American and European oak casks, has a bright and powerful fragrance with well-balanced notes of crisp apples, honey, and toffee. On the palate, there are citrus fruits, honey, and sweet toffee. A hand-signed image of Magnum photographer Paolo Pellegrin’s The Macallan Distillery is also included on the bottle.

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Notes on Tasting

Strong aroma with well-balanced hints of nutmeg, honey, toffee, crisp apples, and citrus zest. In contrast to the wood and floral undertones, oak enters near the end of the nose. You’ll also taste citrus, sweet toffe, smooth honey, and a sweet vanilla finish on the mouth.