Glenfiddich 15 vs Macallan 12
- Written by News Co
For those who are looking to expand their whisky taste buds and who have sufficient means to spend on their whisky, Glenfiddich 15 and Macallan 12 are both great options for high-end whiskies. For Macallan, the whisky produced is very different because of its focus on sherry barrels and aging. It matures in a combination of PX, oloroso, and sherry barrels, giving it a whole range of flavors from sweet to baking to seasoning.
For insight into the production process, there are heavy distillators that dry yeast bags that workers used to carry around, but today there are lighter, more economical, and more diverse liquid yeast pumps and stainless steel washers. The latter are fast and easy-to-clean machines compared to wood or Douglas fir washing machines, which need to be cleaned by a human being, meaning slower processing before the next batch begins. All these changes have their fans and critics in the distillery (visit one for experience), but these whiskies have a good selection of people who work in most production areas, giving the products a human touch.
Macallan was one of the first distilleries to recognize the marketability, taste, and overall sexiness of single malts when they went public in the 1970s. This marketing seems to have worked, as Macallan, Glenfiddich, and Glenlivet now account for nearly a third of the global single malt whisky market. In fact, Glenfiddich whisky is hoping to score big on social media and on screen, with a £6 million marketing drive that it hopes will bring a new generation of whisky drinkers to the brand. Glenfiddich has appointed Microsoft brand strategist Matthew Harley-Pearson to lead its marketing team after spending the last three years with the technology giant. The first stage of the marketing push is aimed at a young audience via ads, TV and YouTube.
The price of Macallan is good, and it is aged for six years, so it's ready to drink. The bottle boasts a massive 700ml, but it would be great in a smaller vessel – or even a Lucozade bottle – for a night on the tiles.
This whisky has a hypnotic brown, sugary sheen. Most of us don't know this because we don't tend to judge a whisky depth of color and hue. Macallan is one of the few whisky producers that does not use caramel colouring, so it seems to package an excessive amount of tough fruit flavours into a bright colour.
The Mcallan 12 is often paired with dance music, creating the perfect combo. It’s a great selection for those who are not single malt scotch connoisseurs, since some of the Macallan selections, such as the Macallan Rare cask 86, make for a fairly expensive price tag. In its immaculately packed decanter, the drink has a textured deep brown color, along with a deeply aromatic vanilla and toffee-type aroma. It's bottled at 86 proof—meaning the ABV stands at 86 percent—and that means the whisky inside has about a 13 percent alcohol content.
Macallan Distillery started out as an elk distillery. The 15 year old Glenfiddich whisky is soft and handcrafted from Oregon Pine Solera vats that are held half full and are wedded to Portuguese oak barrels. It is aged in American bourbon, Portuguese sherry, and oak barrels.
Looking at a variety of whisky rating sites, once can glean that more people prefer Macallan to Glenfiddich. So we'll sit back and enjoy two excellent whiskies.
Look at the bottle label if you are interested in a breakdown of the barrels in which it has matured, but it is an interesting drama with some minerality that is not normally associated with the brand. Also, the coloring contributes to the mood.
In 2001, Michael Martin elected a 10-year-old Macallan as the official Scotch of the Speaker of the House of Commons after drinking a drink of alcohol. He smelled the whisky that made up the selection. This continues a tradition in which the speaker names an official single malt.
Macallan 1926 Scotch Whisky is the oldest Scottish brand in the Fine & Rare collection. It was distilled in oak barrels in 1926. It is extremely rare and is considered one of the few whiskies that has matured for so long without losing its character.
Every February, I remember the people of Aberlour and Speyside emptying a bottle of whisky into the River Spey to mark the start of the salmon fishing season. If you had not known, the salmon would not have objected.
Glenfiddich's 1937 Scotch Whisky was poured into 843 barrels in 1937 and left to mature for the next 64 years. In the end, it was the ripest whisky of all time, with ten successive warehouse masters watching over the barrels as they continued to age. In 2001, Glenfiddishs "master malt, David Stewart, decided that the cask could be bottled 843 and 61 bottles were produced.
Glenfiddich 15 is made in Scotland by Whyte and Mackay distillery and, thus, is a product of Highland Scotch whisky. It is made in Glen Ord, a small distillery owned by Edrington of Scotland, "one of the world's largest spirits companies" according to the site. The whisky is a single malt scotch made from malted barley, ground and pureed in the Robbie Dhu Spring water spring. The barley is then pureed until it is fermented in a Douglas fir wooden fermentation tank. The source of the spring, located in the small village of Robbie, is so pure that the distillery bought 1,200 hectares near the spring more than a decade ago to protect its water source.
It is unfiltered and filled with 932 proof drums. It's a whisky with a twist and a change. Mysterious and unfathomable, it offers a selection of flavors and delicacies: honeycomb, ginger, nuts, biscuits, and tobacco.
Scotch whisky is aged for three years in oak barrels. At its core, Scotch Whisky is a grain whisky produced in Scotland. In order for a whisky to qualify as a Scotch whisky, it must meet certain standards laid down by law.
