Macallan Double Cask Gold

I never got around to this while it was still in production, but was lucky enough to find on a shelf years later. This may have been a waste of money, but as a completionist, I just couldn’t resist. It may be gone, but this bottling kickstarted the Double Cask line, and I guess that’s reason enough to be interested for me. Nose: Milk chocolate, vanilla, toffee, and caramel. Toasted almond. Peanut butter cookie. Pencil shavings. Sprite. Orange citrus. Gala apple, pear, apricot, and golden raisin. Plum, date, and fig. Honey and butterscotch. Cinnamon, black and white pepper, clove, nutmeg, and oak. Mild green, young notes sprinkled in that indicate youth, with some more floral, refined ones mixed in. Palate: Velvet and leather. Orange citrus. Butterscotch, honey, caramel, vanilla, sugar cookie, and toffee. Especially the first two. Toasted almond. Pencil shavings. Apple, pear, and apricot. Heavy on the plum, raisin, fig, and date. Pipe smoke and cocoa. Cinnamon, black and white pepper, clove, nutmeg,and oak. Finish: Plum, raisin, date, and fig. Fig Newton, even. Orange citrus. Cocoa. Milk chocolate, vanilla, and toffee. Cinnamon, black and white pepper, clove, nutmeg, and oak. This is surprisingly good. I can’t imagine it’s too much younger than their 12-year Double Cask. This seems to be the replacement for the 10-year, and now there is a vacuum in that place. Or, more likely, this was just younger stock that was eventually to become the DC. If that’s the case, this was a trial run and its discontinuation is logical. Now, I enjoyed this. It abides by all the rules of the Macallan DC series. In hindsight, it’s not groundbreaking, but at the time of its inception, it was a unique and worthwhile undertaking. I dropped a $100 on this, but like I said, I paid a premium for my curiosity. Retailers know when they’ve got something you can’t buy anymore, and therefore, I won’t be too harsh on this because it was a ~$50 in its day. But, 40% NAS does hurt this a little. 3/5 feels fair. Docking a quarter start on value. Glad I grabbed it though.

Pretty flat