dirty31
Reviewed
May 15, 2019 (edited June 3, 2019)
Macallan Ed No 3
This one is a journey and requires serious time and devotion. Not a background whisky by any means. It demands your attention like the sheer dressed starlet on the red carpet. And it will not be denied. At the heart is classic Macallan but it has spent a day at the spa being pampered and bathed in various oak spice and perfume.
Nose: richly perfumed. Maybe the busiest and most complex nose on a whiskey I’ve experienced. Floral, heather, malt; like a flowering rock garden. Lemon juice and sweet tea ala Arnold Palmer, tupelo honey, cardamom, butter and brown sugar. At the base of it is classic Macallan orange marmalade and tangerines.
Palate: sweet and oak, almost instantly drying, big burst of heat after the swallow. Black tea and honey, cinnamon, clove, oak vanilla, a slight tinge of savoriness like soy sauce, serious barrel spice and pepperiness. Sherry dark fruit (plums and figs) and nuttiness. Vanilla almonds.
Finish: quick, drying, pepper, leather, a habano wrapped cigar.