A recent conversation about changes afoot at Lagavulin – and the impact in coming years – brought to mind the last time I was advised to ‘stock up while you can’, or something to that effect.
This would be twenty years ago when Macallan launched their Fine Oak range in 2004, abandoning the longstanding premise of bottling their whisky exclusively from the finest sherry casks from Jerez de la Frontera.
Until then Macallan had always doubled down on their zealous devotion to sherry casks, and boasted as much on their packaging: “For reasons not even science can wholly explain, whisky has always matured best in oak casks that have contained sherry.” According to their marketing copy this set them apart from their peers as, “due to increasing expense and scarcity, other distillers no longer insist on sherry casks.”
In hindsight it seems incredible that SWA regulations would have allowed a brand to shade their competitors in print in such a misleading manner, even more so on their back labels. It was also disingenuous because Macallan had long been filled into American oak casks – both ex–bourbon and ex-sherry – destined for the blender’s vat, while whisky bottled and sold as The Macallan was wholly matured in ex–sherry casks made of Spanish oak.
That narrative quickly changed once parent company Edrington opened an office in Shanghai in July 2003 where – according to the press release – there was “a huge appetite for high quality whisky brands and we are well placed to satisfy demand”. Behold The Macallan Fine Oak range.
New markets begat new products which begat new branding which in turn required a complete overhaul of their packaging, now that Macallan’s USP of being ‘exclusively matured in sherry casks’ had been rendered null and void. The new branding begat a new stylized bottle, all of which came with assurances that these Fine Oak doppelgangers were merely a line extension, and that Macallan matured in sherry oak – the whisky legions of fans had come to know and cherish – would remain blissfully unchanged.
Too long, didn’t read: of course everything changed. And as a rule I’m not one to mourn the good ole days when the whisky was soooo much better. But, I’ll happily admit that The Macallan of yore, even with the smug hubris of its packaging, really was all that and a bag of chips – in particular the truly Exceptional Single Cask bottlings of the early aughts. In hindsight these releases may as well have been a swan song for Macallan’s stock in trade: fulsome, full-bodied, full-sherried excellence.
I had been toying for awhile with the idea of programming a masterclass that samples Macallan through the ages, so I purchased The Macallan 12 Year Old Sherry Oak as a present day comparable to pre-2004 releases. After considering the inflated prices of vintage Macallans I thought better of the idea. I also found myself wishing that I’d paid closer attention in 2004 to the parting words of the late Michael Jackson when we chatted about the Fine Oak range and its implications. So much for my whisky investment-fu. Transcript below.
It’s good to be speaking with you Michael; I had the chance to preview Macallan’s new Fine Oak range with their master distiller Bob Dalgarno, and I’m curious about your thoughts because he mentioned that you had some concerns about consumer perspective.
My first thought when I saw these products was that you’d be crazy to call these Macallan, you should have a second line like some Châteaux when they make a more accessible wine, they have a different name for it.
When I discovered that they weren’t going to be less expensive, and that they were actually quite complex, I think my position softened on that. I was thinking that you spend years building a reputation for one thing and then suddenly you start under the same rubric going in the opposite direction. Everyone has known The Macallan as a heavily sherried whisky; the word Macallan and heavy sherry are synonymous. It’s like a hard rock singer that suddenly decides to make music with a string section.
You mention price which was the first thing I thought of when I saw the Fine Oak range; I wondered if they were bringing out Macallan Lite.
The same thought occurred to me and I worried, even when I discovered that the whiskies were actually full of character, but I still wondered about that perception.
Given the expansion to Asia with an office in Shanghai, my assumption was that they’re looking to capitalize on the Macallan name but can’t deliver what they’ve been selling all along as a sherried whisky. Bob assured me that there was plenty of supply, but realistically there’s not the same supply of European oak as American oak, is there?
If they are running out of inventory then they would have anticipated this ten years ago. I know that they have had an increasingly tough time sourcing sherry wood, so they would have been thinking for some time about laying stock in bourbon wood.
Certainly with the Fine Oak range I don’t see much evidence of sherry, although I’m sure there was some sherry in there because you don’t get the dryness and crisp brittle character that you would get with full bourbon maturation, for example The Balvenie Cask Strength. These Fine Oak whiskies have a much softer edge so I’m going to say there’s probably a small amount of sherry in those vattings.
Similar to the Glenfiddich 12 Year Old with its chocolatey sweetness; I’m sure there’s a bit of sherry in there too. I think it’s likely small enough that you don’t actually notice it to taste, but you would notice it if it wasn’t there. And I’m not speaking from any inside knowledge, it’s just purely my take on it.
What kind of reaction to the Fine Oak do you anticipate from Macallan afficionados?
I’d be worried. Understand that I’m trying to put things in a diplomatic way. I don’t want to be seen to be putting up straw men for people to knock down, but I would be worried about the reaction of the people who will say: “We always thought Macallan was the real thing, they always went for proper sherry ageing, and now they’re actually undermining the whole idea of sherry ageing by bringing out this line.”
Of course, I’m speaking as a ventriloquist for hard core Macallan devotees. But I can see them saying, “I thought they were loyal to sherry, I thought they were loyal to tradition, I thought they really believed in it, and look what they’re doing, producing this commercial hype. And okay, they get people like Michael Jackson to say nice things about their whisky, but we all know he’s is in their pocket anyway!”
Fair play, that was my concern as well, that the real devotees will be suspicious, they’ll think something is wrong here.
Well they will, and you don’t want to upset those people. They can be a mixed blessing – to have these fans who want you to keep your pants on, more than perhaps you might want to keep your pants on. But you also need them to talk up your product.
But isn’t it also true that there are a number of people who don’t care for heavily sherried Macallan?
Yes there are, and that’s the point that I made when I wrote for their press release. I know it looks like I’m engaging in some gymnastics here, but in the press release I said that there are people who argue that Macallan is too heavily sherried, but that I don’t agree with that. I think it’s a whisky that can certainly stand up to a lot of sherry. But for those who don’t, here it is without the sherry.
I like heavily sherried whiskies if the whisky can stand up to it; you can also have a whisky that is completely drowned by it. Most Macallans are heavily sherried and they do stand up to it well. But if that’s not what you want, if you want to get more distillery character, well you certainly get that in the Fine Oak range.
But I’m concerned that the plan will be to have some markets where you will only be able to get the Fine Oak range, countries where Macallan are not present at the moment. If all you see in these markets is the Fine Oak range then that will really confuse the issue. Personally, I would have been much more inclined to call it ‘Easter Elchies’ and then underneath, ‘From The Macallan Distillery’. And that’s not me speaking as a whisky expert, but as someone who has been involved in whisky marketing; I think that would have been the preferable way to go.
Do you see at some point ‘original Macallan’ commanding a premium price? At the moment Fine Oak and Sherry Oak are priced the same but I’m looking down the road.
I’m not really keen to speculate but as sherry wood gets harder to source, as they have to go to more trouble to get it, this could be the case. But certainly I’d be inclined to lay down a few, since there’s no doubt that it’s getting more and more difficult to obtain sherry casks made of Spanish oak.