The Macallan 1861 Replica

Be ready for an amazing story. Back in 1999, the chinese online writer (yes, when your internet was conected by phone, this guy wss writing and winning big money online) Zhang Wei, spent a night in Waldhaus hotel, in switzerland. He went to the hotel bar and saw an incredible bottle... a 1876 Macallan. He convinced the hotel owner to sell him a glass, and he paid the guiness record sum at that time, 10.500 dollars for it. He posted online various photos of his dram, showing the bottle and the cork. Quickly, internet experts (they existed back then as well, lol) started raising questions about some inconsistencies. By that time, a group of vintage Macallan bottles had appeared in various auctions, and the distillery bought about 100 of this bottles between 1999 and 2001. The scandal of the "it seems this bottle was a fake" exploded. Macallan sent experts to the waldhaus hotel to look at the bottle and grab a sample. Oxford scientist concluded that not only the bottle was fake, the whisky was a young blended whisky distilled in 1970, that was worthless. The hotel owner traveled to China to give Zhang Wei his money back. Macallan, who had bought around 100 bottles, took out of their museum most of them, which happened to be fake as well. This scandal resulted in two things: Macallan released a book called "The definitive guide to buy vintage Macallan"; and they released a collection of incredible looking bottles called "the replica series" which name was intended for two things, imitate Macallan whiskies from 1841, 1861, 1876 and 1878, but also take advantage of the fake bottle scandal; it was like a tribute to the scam. And one of those bottles, the 1861 replica one, distillery release, went to Richard Gooding's Perfect Collection... and when he passed, his bottles went to the most incredible auction whisky fans have seen... and it was bought by yours truly, José Massú; and of course, i opened and enjoyed it. Lets see how was it: Bottled at 42.7%abv. On the nose; it was wonderful. The first note was this famous Welsh grape juice. Very grapy; sawdust, chocolate, hazelnut and Nutella. After the first sip, it gave me  strawberry marmalade, Granola,  and All kind of berries. On the palate, it was really good. Vanilla cake, figs; Red fruits: Strawberries. Impalpable sugar, very winey and a little spicy. A second sip gave me chocolate, hazelnut and lots of red fruits. Aftertaste was completely disonant. Very oaky, sawdust, oak spice. It also felt like a cigar box. Short, and different from the palate. Overall, i believe that Macallan intended to replicate the whiskies from 1861, and in order to do so, they overly oaked the finish of this single malt, to make it feel old. It has an incredible aroma, a very enjoyable palate, but a very normal aftertaste. That is why i will rate this whisky 91 over 100, which is a fair score for a great dram, that fell on the last criteria a little bit.