Macallan Edition No. 4

I never tried the first edition, but Edition No 2 and Edition No 3 were much to my liking. And while Edition No 5 will soon be upon us (with a bloodred label, I’ve been told), I would like to take this opportunity to try Edition No 4. No less than 300.000 bottles were released! No collaboration with any famous chefs or perfume gurus, simply Bob Delgarno who selected a (huge!) amount of casks to finance – I mean showcase - the craftsmanship of the new distillery. No less than seven – seven! – cask types were used for this vatting.

Dark and sweet nose on toffee, farmer’s butter, cappuccino with milk foam and… rubber. Truly. I have a lot of rubber on the nose. Then some spices from the wood. Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg. Chocolate cake. Roasted chestnuts.

Good strength and fine body. But immediately very spicy. Ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg – just like on the nose – joined by pepper and even a touch of salt. Quickly turns somewhat bitter on walnuts. Chocolate returns, filled with praline. Strangely enough, I do not get any fruit, bar a hint of banana. And caramelized oranges with some imagination. Good, but no cigar.

The finish is medium long on chocolate and cinnamon.

Hm, this is the ugly duckling in the Editions so far. But can a Master Blender truly predict what his whisky will taste like when he needs more than 1.500 casks to create this malt?

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