Macallan Distillery is in Craigallachie, Morayshire, Scotland. It is one of three distilleries owned by The Edrington Group, the other two being Highland Park in Orkney and Glenrothes in Rothes.
The distillery, which was originally named Elchies Distillery, was founded by Alexander Reid. It was first licenced in 1824, but there was almost certainly a farm distillery on the site long before this date.
Reid formed his own company, which was called Alexander Reid & Co. Macallan was part of the group, with Alexander Reid personally ‘at the helm’ until his death in 1847. The distillery then passed through several hands on a tenant arrangement until a James Stuart purchased it in 1886. More on one very special such tenant later!
James Stuart rebuilt the distillery in stone (the originally structure was wood built). However, just six years later in 1892, Stuart sold Macallan to Roderick Kemp. This purchase heralded an era of modernisation, with the distillery being renamed Macallan-Glenlivet, to take advantage of the famous “Glenlivet” suffix.
Kemp’s rebuilding included new warehouse facilities, improved stills, and other additional buildings. Macallan whisky also started to be matured only in ex-sherry Spanish Oak casks – a maturation style that the distillery is still famous for today.
Roderick Kemp died in 1909, when ownership passed to a family trust, for the benefit of his descendants, who were members of the Shiach and Harbinson families. Incredibly, they managed Macallan Distillery until the 1990s.
In the mid-1990s, Highland Distillers acquired an ever-larger stake in Macallan’s then operating company. Around the same time, the Kemp family lost interest and let the distillery go. Seeing this, Highland Distillers joined Suntory and acquired 51% of Macallan.
The new joint-venture then straightaway bought out the remaining 49% of shares. However, this collaboration didn’t last long. By the decade’s end, Highland Distillers was acquired by The Edrington Group.
Unsurprisingly, Macallan pretty much immediately became one of Edrington’s core brands. Indeed, through the astute release of a number of new vintages (eg 30 year old and 50 year old), Edrington quickly started to carve out Macallan’s place in whisky history.
Over the next decade, Macallan became ever more famous and aspirational through releasing aged vintages (eg 1926) and a growing range of sherried-matured and fine-oak age statement single malts. The annual release of the fabled 18 year old sherry bottling was eagerly awaited the world over.
It is fair to say that Macallan Distillery now has “the Midas Touch”, in that pretty much everything that it bottles ‘turns to gold’. Demand vastly outstrips supply for many bottlings, leading to ever-soaring primary and secondary market prices for new official releases.
Macallan is particularly aspirational in the Far East, where it has surpassed Johnnie Walker as the ‘go to’ aspirational whisky brand.
Recently, Macallan has been the subject of some controversy, due to its move into no age statement sets of ‘limited-edition’ bottlings (eg the “Editions” set and the ongoing “Folio” collection). Such expressions have legions of fans, especially amongst collectors and investors. However, some Macallan drinkers argue that they are ‘style over substance’, being more about lavish packaging and marketing hype than the quality of the liquid in the bottles.
What cannot be denied though is that Macallan has a massive worldwide following amongst drinkers, collectors and investors alike. There are innumerable fan sites. For example, “The Macallan Investors 2023”, “Macallan Collectors Worldwide” are just two of the many active Facebook groups dedicated to all things Macallan.
Sadly, independent single-cask bottlings of Macallan are ever rarer, as the distillery is increasingly unwilling to sell casks to third parties. However, such expressions are still released from time-to-time. Such independent bottlings are in high demand and sell through very quickly because they’re invariably excellent value when compared with official releases of a similar vintage.
Excitingly, Andrew Skene, who owns Skene Scotch Whisky, has recently discovered an ancestral link with Macallan Distillery. Andrew’s five-times great uncle was a gentleman called James Davidson. He started out as a merchant in Rothes, and soon after also became an innkeeper. James Davidson carried on both businesses with great success for many years, but relinquished them on becoming tenant of Macallan distillery and farm. James held the Macallan tenancy for an incredible sixteen years, before he passed away in 1868.
So, generations later, it is somewhat appropriate that the family link with Macallan has been re-established, inasmuch as Andrew Skene sources and bottles single casks of Macallan, for both private clients and for public release under the “Skene” label. Indeed, at the time of writing, the wonderful expression pictured below is available for purchase on Skene Scotch Whisky’s website shop. This glorious Macallan 30 year old (from Cask 8190) was distilled way back in 1991 and bottled in 2021, at a warming 48% ABV. It is just £1,800, which is a great price in today’s marketplace.
