Macallan Classic Cut (2018 Release)

sweet, mild, sherry scent, rich

I received a bottle of this 2018 Macallan Classic Cut from my friend @LeeEvolved as a Christmas gift. He gave me a choice between this and I believe the GlenDronach Peated Portwood. Having had the 2017 version and found it quite good, I decided to go with this one. Bottled at 51.2% ABV (which is down significantly from the 2017 version), non chill filtered and natural color of orange amber. The nose starts off with sweet raisins...but then it was like someone flipped a switch and it shifted radically to straight up artificial movie theater popcorn butter topping. You know the stuff, thick, greasy and has that not really butter but kinda smell. That plus a huge hit of sulfur. Very sweet on top of that and quite fruity. Strange oaky notes as well, like the butter and sulfur got into the wood. Grape jelly, strawberry jam, blackberries, cranberries and blueberries. Butter toffee, caramel and vanilla, pie crust. Cashews and perhaps some peanuts. Light maple notes, brown sugar and even a little white chocolate. Letting it sit for a good long while more and more caramel comes out. Water will make it slightly sour if you add too much. Still has those buttery notes but not as bad. More raisins and some faint spices. Baked apples and pears. The palate is full on sherry. Big over the top bright juicy sherry, it really shows it’s youth though. Sulfuric and buttery, like someone melted a stick of butter and a sulfur candle into a bottle of cheap sherry. Ugh. Plenty of caramel and some mint. Tart berries, but still some sweetness, like a berry compote where only 1/4 of the sugar was added. Sherried oak and faint cocoa powder. Raisins and craisins and some light ginger. Not much heat given the ABV, but it lets you know it’s there from time to time. Water doesn’t do much but brings out a little more sweetness and tones down the overall profile. A medium to full bodied mouthfeel that is oily and mouthwatering. The finish is long with sherry, mint tea, caramel, slightly tart and dry. It took me a little over a month to work through this bottle and for the first 2/3 of it those buttery and sulfuric notes were inescapable and a chore to deal with. The last 1/3 still had them, but greatly reduced and the berry notes were able to be more easily enjoyed. Quite a disappointment when compared to its 2017 counterpart, like drinking a cask strength mixed berry jam... not really my kinda thing. A few redeeming qualities in there, but very much overshadowed by those funky notes. Thanks for the gift Lee, it did it’s job and got me good and buzzed on more than one occasion, but I’m throwing in the towel on this 2018 Classic Cut. Cheers

Ah, it pains me to pen this review. If we go back to early 2017, when Macallan released the first Classic Cut- I was thrilled. I loved that malt so much that I spent an entire Saturday riding around central Virginia scooping up every bottle I could find on local ABC store shelves (this was mid-late summer, mind you, and most bottles had disappeared). I ended up with 8 bottles. I knew this would be a malt I’d love to return to periodically- so I needed lots of bottles. So, flash forward to about a month ago and I see the new 2018 version sitting on shelves staring me down- same bright red box, same classic bottle design and label. Well, hell- I’m probably going to need 8 bottles of this year’s batch, too. Thankfully, the store only had 3- so, I’m only in for $270 + taxes at this point. The problem- this year’s version is a complete abomination. I don’t understand what’s going on. This bottle is down about 7-8% in ABV- that can’t be it. I still can’t put my finger on what the major flaw is. I’m perplexed. The 2018 version is yellow gold and makes medium drops and oily, quick-forming legs in the taster. It’s bottled at a robust 51.2% ABV. It’s still $89 here in Virginia. The nose foreshadows the short comings: fake, popcorn butter greets you right out of the bottle. Some funky oak notes and weak sherry notes take turns offending your senses. I get that same diacetyl acid flavor leaking through no matter how long you let it sit and relax. The palate is plenty juicy, almost mouthwatering. Sadly, that same buttered popcorn note dominates the sherry cask you’ve come to expect from Macallan. There’s some berries and Juicy Fruit gum notes mingling with what I can only describe as “wicker basket” wood notes. It turns very dry, very quickly. What happened? The finish is warming, thanks to the near cask strength, but again is mostly buttered sherry lingering on and eventually turning ever so dry. Now, I’ve given this bottle time and multiple tastings and none of these notes have really changed for the better (nor for the worse, thankfully). I have to hold this one up against its successor and it’s a pitiful follow-up. Hell, it’s not a very good Macallan, actually. Thankfully, I didn’t buy any more bottles and my buddy Paul unknowingly took a bottle off of my hands as his Christmas gift (I shipped to him prior to opening my bottle- so I didn’t push this stuff off on him lol). So, I’m left with one bottle I’ll gladly put in the closet towards a possible set (if Macallan continues this series). I hope they recognize this bottle’s faults and don’t allow them to return. As it is, this is a 2-2.25 bottle. Seek out the 2017 version and leave this one for the suckers, my friends. Cheers.