The Macallan distillery was founded by Alexander Reid in 1824 by a barley farmer and a teacher. Farmers during that time grew barley on a large scale all around Scotland. The Macallan Distillery Ltd. is a subsidiary of the Edrington Group since 1999, after they acquired the company from Highland Distillers.
A partnership between Edrington and William Grant & Sons purchased Highland Distillers for £601 million in 1999. Edrington would become the major stakeholder in Macallan, alongside minority shareholders William Grant & Sons and Suntory.
Edrington has continued to promote Macallan’s growth as a single malt brand opening a visitors’ centre in 2001, and positioning Macallan at the forefront of the growing luxury and collectable whisky market.
Since Macallan’s first single malt release in 1984 ex-sherry casks had been used exclusively for maturation, although under Edrington’s direction Macallan would become the first distillery to create ‘bespoke’ casks. The ‘bespoke’ cask regime saw Macallan select specific trees (primarily European oak), to create casks coopered to Macallan’s specifications in Jerez Spain and seasoned with Oloroso sherry. The Sherry Oak maturation became Macallan’s unique selling point, with Macallan building additional warehouses at the distillery to store to specially created casks.
In 2004, Macallan expanded its single malt range launching the Fine Oak series introducing a variety of American oak and ex-bourbon casks for maturation, creating a lighter and sweeter malt character attracting new whisky drinkers. Macallan’s popularity and increasing demand saw the mothballed second Macallan stillhouse reopen and resume production in 2009.
Edrington has marketed Macallan to the luxury whisky market with bottlings of 50–60-year-old Macallan in Lalique crystal decanters, and the ‘Fine & Rare’ collection comprised of vintage expressions dating from 1926 to 1989. Limited edition Macallan releases have featured innovative collaborations with artists and designers, such as the ‘Masters of Photography’ series which combines exclusive bottlings with unique photographic items from leading photographers including Rankin and Albert Watson.
In 2012, The Macallan received the Guinness World Record for the most expensive whisky sold at auction. In 2014, a decanter of Macallan's 'M' whisky sold at auction in Hong Kong for a record-breaking $628,205.
In 2018, The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 60- year-old sold for £848,000 at auction in Edinburgh, the world's most expensive bottle of whisky.
Luxury Club SDABAC
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