A bottle of The Macallan 25 Year Old Unblended Single Highland Malt Scotch Whisky. This was distilled in 1971, matured in sherry casks and bottled in 1997 as part of The Macallan's Anniversary Malt series.
The Macallan Anniversary Malt is a series of sherry matured malts first released in the early 1980s. Each bottling comes from a single year's distillation which is then matured for over 25 years. Starting with 1957 the series covers most distillation years up to 1975. Non-vintage expressions were also bottled, as well as 'double vintages', (for instance The Macallan 1958/1959).
The Macallan distillery was founded in 1824 by barley farmer Alexander Reid. What began as two stills housed in a wooden shed has grown to a 36 still site today.
In 1892 the distillery passed to Roderick Kemp, former owner of Talisker, whose descendants retained ownership until the 1990s. By 1975 the then 21 still plant was regarded as an important malt for blends. The downturn of the early 1980s led The Macallan to focus on the emerging single malt category and it began to establish itself as one of the world's most popular and collectible single malts. The management team repositioned the distillery as a 'first-growth whisky' and oversaw an innovative advertising campaign (commemorated in The Archival Series which began in 2015). In the mid 1990s The Macallan was purchased by Highland Distillers and became part of Edrington in 1999. The first single cask bottling, Exceptional 1, was launched in 2000.
The Macallan has become known for its investment potential as well as the quality of its whisky, with rare bottles regularly breaking records at auction.
In 2017 the new £100 million Macallan distillery was completed.
This Macallan 1971 25 Year Old Anniversary Malt sold at our online auction for £2,300
