Macallan 12 Year Triple Cask Matured

Nose: Glassy (yes, glassy not grassy) cereal and sharp fruit notes. Grapefruit and beer. A vanilla hint and a raw ethanol aroma almost like grain whisky. Palate: It starts as if it will be lightly sweet but quickly gains a hard, sour and rough edge. Flavours of malt, orange peel and old bitter walnuts. As it develops a hot gingery note comes forward to dominate the palate. Finish: Medium. Fading out on tannin. I found little to enjoy in this whisky. It is supposedly the old Fine Oak 12 year in new packaging, but I've had that malt and this is not as good. It seems unbalanced, with little sherry influence. The main wood presence is an unappealing resinous character as of tired bourbon casks. There's also a raw spirit note reminiscent of blended scotch. It does open and improve slightly after some time in the glass, gaining a little vanilla on the palate, and over time as the level in the bottle drops it improves slightly through oxidization. I never became particularly fond of this whisky, however, and I was glad to see the end of it once it was finished. "Adequate (just barely)" : 70/100 (2 stars)