[MM-MALTS-L] Old Macallan

[Craig Daniels]

Hi all

I agree. The stuff coming out of Macallan distilled between 1980 and 1984
wasn't the same.  I had no idea that the stills might have changed, but this
would explain a lot.

Cheers

Craig Daniels
Chairperson
Malt Whisky Society of Australia Inc
www.mwsoa.org.au
 
-----Original Message-----
From: mm-malts-l-bounces at grsnet.net [mailto:mm-malts-l-bounces at grsnet.net]
On Behalf Of djrussobik at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, 14 October 2009 10:45 AM
To: MaltManiacs operated former 'MALT-L' Whisky List
Subject: Re: [MM-MALTS-L] Old Macallan

Agreed, Davin.  Never the same afterward.
Slainte, Dave
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: Davin de Kergommeaux <maltmaniacsdavin at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:36:12 
To: MaltManiacs operated former 'MALT-L' Whisky List<mm-malts-l at grsnet.net>
Subject: Re: [MM-MALTS-L] Old Macallan

Hi Nico,

I can shed no light but can say that on my palate the 18yo Macallan
changed after 1979.

Davin


On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 6:58 PM, Nico Spiegel <NicoSpiegel at web.de> wrote:
> Hello everybody,
>
> It's nice to see that our list has been revitalised after months of
extremely low traffic. So, I decided to give up my usual lurking position
and to contributed to the debate by asking a question. I bought recently the
phantastic photo book "Bottled History - Vestiges of a disappearing era in
Scottish malt whisky distileries" by Ian Macilwain (www.bottledhistory.com).
It is essentially a collection of great photos of disused equipment, old
buildings and forgotten corners of (working and silent) distilleries,
together with statements from interviews with retired distillery workers -
an atmospheric journey into bygone times.
>
> But that's not my main point. At the end of the book, Macilwain gives
explanations on the particular settings where the photos were taken. Among
these locations figures "Old Macallan Distillery, Rothes". Macilwain says:
"Macallan is an immaculately clean, highly automated distillery, with a
deservedly high reputation. Lying behind the main still house is an
unobtrusive building containing the original distillery, which has been
mothballed since 1980. It is now being brought back into service as a result
of increased demand. This old distillery has been largely left alone but
sufficient care has been taken to ensure that the washbacks were kept filled
with water in a state of potential readiness for future use. In view of the
recent announcement regarding its refurbishent this would seem to have been
a very wise move" (page 135, referring to the picture on page 93).
>
> Now, I have heard a number of times that Macallan is increasing its
capacity by building new big warehouses and recommissioning a second
stillhouse that had been out of use for a number of years. I found this
always a little bit odd because it implied that at some time in the past
Macallan must have cut back existing capacity by something like half, making
redundant a whole stillhouse. With Macilwain's explanation things become
clearer: There was no cut-back, but actually a replacement of more or less
the whole existing distillery (at least the still house, including the
washbacks) by brand-new state of the art equipment. However, this is
somewhat disturbing because it would suggest a revolutionary change in
production in 1980. What's more, if you look at the Macallan timeline, for
instance in the Malt Whisky Yearbook 2009, there is no such event mentioned.
They indicate rather a slow, continuous increase of capacity ("1974 - The
number of stills is increased to 18, 1975 - An
>  other three stills are added, 1980 - The name changes to Macallan"). No
revolution, only slow, old-fashioned organic growth - but then, what about
the sleeping beauty behind the main still house?
>
> Can anybody shed light on this mysterium? What's more, I have a Macallan
Gran Reserva 1980 which is a truly great whisky - where was it distilled, in
Macilwain's time capsule distillery or in a newly installed high tech unit?
>
> Nico Spiegel
> Brussels
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