THE MACALLAN ANNOUNCES RECIPIENTS OF £260,000 ARTISAN APPRENTICESHIP FUND
Proceeds from auction of The Reach will help to preserve legacy skills
The Macallan has revealed details of four recipient businesses to benefit from its recently launched Artisan Apprenticeship Fund.
Four UK firms will each receive a portion of £260,000 funding awarded by The Macallan to enable the recruitment and training of new apprentices.
Scottish businesses Alexander Manufacturing, Glasstorm and Powderhall Bronze, alongside London-based Shepherds Bookbinders, will each benefit from a share of funds to support and perpetuate key generational skills and crafts.
The Artisan Apprenticeship Fund is delivered through The Macallan Artisan Collective, a creative forum for likeminded master makers to network, exchange ideas, innovate and collaborate via live gatherings and digital events. Established in 2021, it champions and celebrates the artisans, their philosophies, knowledge and skills as well as the critical role they play in local and global economies.
In the same year, The Macallan created Artisan Apprenticeship Fund in recognition of the need to preserve and safeguard legacy crafts, trades, skills, and values to support employment for generations to come.
Proceeds for the fund have been generated primarily through the auction of The Reach 81 Years Old single malt, the oldest whisky ever released in the history of The Macallan.
A one-of-a-kind special edition of this release, crafted from a single, sherry seasoned oak cask, was sold at Sotheby’s London in October. The auction lot featured an exclusive bottle of The Macallan The Reach, encased in a display cabinet lined in red leather. This reflects the red thread that has run through the brand since it was founded almost 200 years ago, rather than the traditional cream leather which features on the original whisky release.
Elizabeth McMillan, Head of Insight & Sustainability at The Macallan, said:
“At The Macallan, we thrive as a local brand with a global presence because of the remarkable communities and networks with whom we enjoy strong interdependent relationships built on shared value creation.
“The Macallan holds a deep affinity with all luxury artisans and master makers. Dedication to creativity, craftsmanship, innovation and collaboration are a key part of our brand DNA, and through The Macallan Artisan Collective and Artisan Apprenticeship Fund, we aim to establish a legacy of positive action by fostering meaningful progress for our key communities through partnerships, collaborations, and fundraising.
“Preserving and safeguarding legacy crafts, trades, skills, and values is an essential part of this, to help support employment for generations to come. We’re proud to play a part in training and guiding the next generation of artisans throughout Scotland and beyond.”
The Macallan Artisan Apprenticeship Fund will enable recipient businesses to attract and recruit new apprentices into key trades, as well as providing existing artisan apprentices with the opportunity to take part in specialist training and skills development programmes.
Alexander Manufacturing is a luxury garment manufacturer, based in North Lanarkshire which specialises in the production of handmade coats for the slow fashion and apparel industry. With funds in place, Alexander Manufacturing will create four new, full-time apprentice positions.
Tain-based contemporary glass studio Glasstorm specialises in hand-crafted bespoke works in glass and will use the funding to create one apprentice role.
Based in Musselburgh, East Lothian, fine art foundry Powderhall Bronze is seeking to onboard two apprentices, training one existing employee and one new team member, while Shepherds Bookbinders, based in London, will use proceeds from The Macallan Artisan Apprenticeship Fund to offer training to an existing employee.
For further information about The Macallan Artisan Collective and The Macallan Artisan Apprenticeship Fund, visit The Macallan Positive Society and Community Initiatives.
About The Macallan
Founded in 1824 on a plateau above the River Spey in north-east Scotland, The Macallan is renowned globally for its incomparable craftsmanship, creativity and innovation with each bottle of single malt whisky revealing its unique mastery of wood and spirit.
Social and environmental sustainability is at the heart of The Macallan, and as part of its commitment to establishing a positive legacy it revealed its award-winning new Distillery in 2018. Designed by internationally acclaimed architects, the building takes inspiration from the surrounding ancient Scottish hills and is located on The Macallan’s beautiful 485-acre Estate. To this day, the single greatest influence on The Macallan’s sought after portfolio of single malts is its sherry seasoned oak casks from which its whiskies derive their distinctive flavours, aromas and natural colour.
Crafted without compromise. Please savour The Macallan responsibly.
About Alexander Manufacturing
Alexander Manufacturing Ltd is a luxury Scottish garment manufacturer, located in North Lanarkshire and specialising in coat making for the luxury slow fashion and apparel industry. The garment manufacturing facility specialises in tailoring and coat making, with the company’s unique specialism producing vulcanised handmade garments.
Production Manager, Ann Clark, works alongside a talented team of skilled workers covering all aspects of coat making, handmade coat makers, machinists, cutters, and finishers. Owner, Nadia Alexander, invested in the facility following a desire to support Scottish garment manufacturing and to play a role in producing the highest quality garments, made in Scotland, and supporting Scottish mills and fabric houses. Sustainability is key to Nadia and is at the heart of all that Alexander Manufacturing does.
About Glasstorm
Established in 2005 in Tain, in the Scottish Highlands, Glasstorm is now firmly established as one of Britain’s most exciting and vibrant hot glass studios, providing a friendly, confidential and bespoke range of services including glass design, consultancy, proto-typing and manufacture.
Glasstorm is led by Brodie Nairn and Nichola Burns, who have each worked internationally within the glass industry for more than 20 years. Brodie and Nicky bring a wealth of technical knowledge and creative flair to all the projects they undertake, and the creative team has developed a reputation for being experts and pioneers in the niche field of luxury glass products.
About Powderhall Bronze
Based in Musselburgh, East Lothian, the artisans of Powderhall Bronze are experts in sculpture, metal working and engineering. The team’s combined knowledge of the casting and founding process means artisans can work closely with clients, ensuring a hand finished product of the highest quality. The foundry also offers a complete conservation and restoration service, returning existing bronze castings to their original glory. Powderhall Bronze specialises in scaling and casting of models, and in high quality metal fabrication.
About Shepherds Bookbinders
Shepherds Bookbinders has been based at Rochester Row in the City of Westminster for more than 25 years. The workshop incorporates the long-established firms of Zaehnsdorf, founded in 1842, and Sangorski & Sutcliffe, established in 1901. The bindery employs craftspeople with a broad range of traditional and modern skills, such as paper conservation, hand-sewn pages, gilt edges, fine leather covers and gold finishing.
Stunning Quality and Value from a K&L Speyside Favorite
2006 Craigellachie 15 Year Old “Old Particular” K&L Exclusive Cask Strength Single Sherry Butt
“These sherried Craigellachies are an absolute delight … when they keep dropping these on us and the price goes DOWN, we just can’t say no.”
— David Othenin-Girard, K&L Spirits Buyer
Bottled at cask strength from a first-fill sherry butt, this is a spectacular expression of the Craigellachie style, as the distillery’s singular profile is a perfect match for the barrel’s influence. This 15-year-old iteration offers arguably higher quality and an absolutely more distinctive profile than a previous 16-year-old cask, and for a significantly better price.
K&L Notes: Another stupendous sherried Craigellachie from Old Particular. Like 2021’s 16 Year Old, this butt retains significant distillery character while not forgetting that it aged in a sherry butt for a decade and a half. The fabulous distillery just across the river from the famous Macallan distillery was once one of Speyside’s most undervalued. Now, due to repositioning and tariffs, even the entry-level distillery offerings seem out of reach in value terms, let alone their extremely well regarded “Exceptional Cask” bottlings, which have gone up in price 30-40% over the last year. We’ve managed, on the other hand, to lower the price of this exceptional malt by over $20 for something of equal or greater quality and just one year younger than the former offering. The bold, sometimes funky malt character of Craighellachie does wonders when married with sherry, and the resulting malt won’t disappoint sherry lovers, although it’s not the sweet, raisiny style some drinkers have come to associate with modern, sherry-matured single malts. Instead, it’s a deeply complex and slightly esoteric style that will appeal to drinkers looking for something more classical and contemplative.
David Othenin-Girard | K&L Spirits Buyer | Review Date: June 08, 2022
These sherried Craigellachies are an absolute delight. We don’t like to do the same thing year in and year out, but when they keep dropping these on us and the price goes down, we just can’t say no. This new one is a classic funky Craigie, which reminds us that this is one of Speyside’s most flavorful malts and loves to play against a great sherry butt. The color is deep gold. The nose offers that great Craigellachie funk, industrial and old school, which few modern malts offer. The sherry is there, but it doesn’t feel artificially vinous like some modern bottlings can. We get almond butter, roast pecans, bright red fruit, slight camphor smoke, wisps of engine oil, black olive, kirsch, and golden raisins. On the palate, it’s sweeter than expected, now offering some gorgeous dark chocolate, Figgie pudding, sweet candied plums, and a slight minty note on the finish. With water we add some nutty notes on the nose, but it stays pretty much in line. On the palate, there’s now a wonderfully rich, velvety texture and more tropical fruit. This is an absolutely wild whisky and definitely one for the lovers of a bit of funk, although I waffle on whether to add water or not. It’s not sulphuous though, so if you’re sensitive to that, I don’t think it will be a problem. I feel like this is a very underrepresented style that I wish we saw more of—even last year’s excellent 16-year was much more straightforward, and this one offers much more nuance.
Email: wine@klwines.com
Phone: (877) KL-WINES (Toll Free 877.559.4637)
K&L Wine Merchants 3005 El Camino Real Redwood City, CA 94061 USA
San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA
A Vibrant masterpiece,
coloured by our highland landscape
A limited release of 1134 bottles, The 42 is the 2nd oldest whisky to be released by The Glenrothes, and one of the first to be created by Master Whisky Maker, Laura Rampling.
A union of just 4 exceptional casks, that over 42 years have matured our spirit among the ever changing colours and evolving landscape of The Glenrothes Estate in Speyside.
The changing colours of the terrain are represented within the bold, contoured pack that houses the whisky, and shines through in the vibrant flavour of the whisky itself.
A new crystal decanter, an interpretation of The Glenrothes iconic bottle, holds the whisky with cuts inspired by the oak staves of our casks and crowned by an elegant crystal stopper.
The 42 boasts an intensely aromatic fragrance, distinctly sweet taste, yet a smooth, velvety mouthfeel. Bottled at natural colour, like all our whiskies, its naturally deep amber tone is a result of the four decades’ long maturation in oak casks.
if you haven’t done so already, register your interest in this rare and coveted release so that we can keep you updated on availability where you are.
Distillery Manager, Callum Fraser. During one of his regular visits through the traditional warehouses at Glenfarclas Distillery came across a parcel of casks approaching their 35th birthday. He found them to be exceptional and as a result, Glenfarclas decided to create their first release of the 35-Year-Old, in the classic red warehouse doors series.
Shop – Glenfarclas 35 Year Old 1st Release
ralfy review 964 – Springbank 12yo Cask @53.2%vol (OSWA Winner 2022)
Delos is the whiskymakers’ first limited-edition of 2023
February 2023: Award-winning Scotch whiskymakers Compass Box introduce a new, limited-edition expression with Delos; a delicate and soothing Scotch inspired by flavours of the past (RRP £265, ABV: 49%).
Available from February, Delos is a reimagined study of Compass Box’s much admired extinct blend, Asyla. Delos focuses on capturing Asyla’s vibrancy and soothing sweetness, turning to older stocks to achieve this. First created in 2001, Asyla was the ethereally beautiful cornerstone of the core range until its retirement in 2018.
Delos is the second release from the whiskymaker’s Extinct Blends Quartet series and will only have 5,520 bottles available worldwide. The Extinct Blend Quartet celebrates discontinued characters and flavours, reappraising four very different expressions of blended Scotch. The remaining two from the series will be introduced in late 2023 and early 2024.
Named after a Greek island said to be the birthplace of the god Apollo that is blessed with mosaics and ruined ancient temples, Delos signifies Asyla’s beauty and serenity as a whisky. Blended to entice the senses, the sumptuous and meditative flavours of Delos provide a moment of sanctuary, embodying a rare escape to a sun-kissed paradise of great antiquity.
With an interplay of grain and malt, Delos balances some of Compass Box’s rarest and most idiosyncratic stocks of whisky to create an elegant and refined flavour. Malt whiskies from the much sought-after Glen Elgin, Imperial and Miltonduff distilleries – all aged in American oak barrels – bring a sweet yet mellow medley of ripe pear, pineapple, orange, and vanilla notes, while the maturity of the grain whisky gradually builds to reveal guava, heather honey, and chai spices.
The captivating label art features a female lute player from the original Asyla label, reimagined in mosaic form. However, she now plays a lyre, the instrument classically associated with Apollo, with the outline of the tiles broken away to reflect the coastlines of Delos and Greece.
James Saxon, Compass Box lead whiskymaker says, “While inspired by the style and recipe structure of Asyla, Delos has richer and rounder flavours from using older stocks of whiskies which amplify the character, bringing more grandeur to it and making it more resonant. The delicate mouthfeel and transportive aromas within Delos are nevertheless familiarly delicious. For me, sipping Delos feels like a holiday.”
Curious whisky lovers can find out more about Delos and other Compass Box whiskies at compassboxwhisky.com or follow @compassboxwhiskyco on Instagram.
Compass Box whiskies are available to purchase at compassboxwhisky.com, masterofmalt.com and thewhiskyexchange.com.
ABOUT COMPASS BOX
Compass Box are Scotch whiskymakers. The word ‘whiskymaker’ is their word – it does not appear in a dictionary. For over 20 years they have been relentlessly focused on reinventing Scotch whisky, with every new blend designed to help make the world of whisky a more interesting place. They have not done it on their own and have collaborated with some of the world’s most visionary bartenders and designers to really push the boundaries of what is possible. They are always experimenting, always looking for sparks of creativity that will deliver something totally compelling, yet completely surprising. This vision motivates them as whiskymakers.
ABOUT COMPASS BOX LIMITED EDITIONS
Compass Box’s Limited Editions allow them complete creative freedom, often using smaller parcels at greater ages. Each Limited Edition is one-off in nature. Every year, Compass Box creates a number of Limited Editions from very rare releases of a few hundred bottles to more accessible runs of several thousand bottles. Each one boasts a different identity, each expresses deliciousness in Scotch whisky in a different way.
Mark Littler Ltd Creates Comprehensive List of World Record-Breaking Whisky Sales
The extensively researched list is the subject of Mark’s new YouTube video.
It might come as a surprise to know that, until now, there has been no comprehensive list of all of the world record-breaking whiskies sold at auction. Even the Guinness Book of World Records only lists the most recent title holder: The Macallan 1926 60 Year Old. Whilst this particular bottle has certainly set an extremely high bar with a £1.5 million sale, there has been a long history of world record-breaking whisky sales dating all the way back to 1983.
In their new YouTube video and an extensive article, published in issue 15 of Cask & Still magazine, the Mark Littler Ltd team shed some light on this long history of auction records and the surprising bottles that have once held the title of ‘World’s Most Expensive Whisky’.
Check out the video and the article and let Mark Littler Ltd know your thoughts.
About Mark Littler Limited
Mark Littler is an independent whisky broker, market analyst and consultant with over a decade of experience in the industry. Each week he publishes new videos on his YouTube channel about topics such as cask investment fraud (and how to avoid it), the history of distilleries and bottles, debunking whisky investment myths and much more. For more information visit www.marklittler.com
If you have any thoughts on the video/article or would like to chat to one of the team about our services, please get in touch.
Email: whisky@marklittler.com
Telephone: 01260 218 718
Oh Canada! We’re feeling the love this month as we celebrate the first ever Canadian single malt to be bottled by the SMWS in its 40 year history – Cask No. 152.1 “Vibrant and vigorous.”
And of course we have several other wonderful whiskies in this Outturn, including the first Rye Whiskey to be released by SMWS Canada – Cask No. RW5.3 “Exploring new frontiers” and an elegant small batch Speyside single malt – “Full Bloom” – that spent time in Australian Muscat wine barriques.
There’s a lot to love in February’s Outturn, and you can also look forward to another Vaults Collection release in mid-February, this time a 31 year old sherry-matured whisky from Speyside’s most famous distillery, so watch your email for details!
SWEET MEMORIES ON DESERTED BEACHES
CASK TYPE: Refill ex-bourbon hogshead
AGE: 12 years
FLAVOUR PROFILE: Spicy & sweet
BOTTLE NOTE: “The cool sea breeze touching our warm cheeks as we enjoyed peppermint tea and saltwater taffy. Water added marshmallows and Dutch stroopwafels.”
FULL BLOOM
INITIAL CASKS: 1st fill ex-bourbon barrels
FINAL CASKS: Ex-Muscat wine barriques
AGE: 18 years
“For the creation of this small batch single malt we teamed up with our friends at Nebb Whisky Barrels, who specialise in Australian vintage wine barrels. We selected some top quality Speyside single malt that had matured for 16 years in 1st fill bourbon barrels. We then transferred the whisky to some beautiful barriques that had been filled for 20 years with heady Muscat wine in a family run winery in New South Wales.”
EXPLORING NEW FRONTIERS
CASK TYPE: New oak barrel
AGE: 5 years
BOTTLE NOTE: “Sandalwood, orange oil and spicy Jamaican dark chocolate rum truffles with candied almonds. 95% rye and 5% malted barley.”
VIBRANT AND VIGOROUS
CASK TYPE: 1st fill ex-bourbon barrel
AGE: 9 years
FLAVOUR PROFILE: Young & spritely
BOTTLE NOTE: “Attractively sweet (caramel log, toffee, Lebkuchen, marzipan); but zingy and vibrant at the same time (citrus, white pepper, wasabi, pine).”
GOING LUXE
INITIAL CASK: Ex-bourbon hogshead
FINAL CASK: 1st fill custom hogshead
AGE: 12 years
FLAVOUR PROFILE: Sweet, fruity & mellow
BOTTLE NOTE: “Sweet Virginia tobacco, frankincense and a chocolate and raspberry crème brûlée followed by churros dipped in hot chocolate and café con miel.”
TANNIC, SHAMANIC, OCEANIC
CASK TYPE: Refill re-charred hogshead
AGE: 8 years
FLAVOUR PROFILE: Peated
BOTTLE NOTE: “Sauna wood and burnt twigs, bonfire of driftwood and peat (tatties roasted in the embers), burnt sage leaves; caramel popcorn and neoprene.”
THROW THE CORK AWAY!
INITIAL CASKS: Ex-bourbon hogsheads
FINAL CASKS: 1st fill Oloroso hogsheads
AGE: 8 years
FLAVOUR PROFILE: Peated
BOTTLED FOR THE 2022 ISLAY WHISKY FESTIVAL
LIMIT ONE BOTTLE PER MEMBER
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society Canada
Suite 160
104 – 1240 Kensington Road NW
Calgary, AB T2N 3P7
403-969-8225
curious@smws.ca
www.smws.ca
It’s a big day for Rosebank fans and collectors as we launch the final instalment of 21-year-old single malt from Elixir Distillers’ extremely rare Rosebank Roses series. Matured in a combination of bourbon and madeira casks, Enchantment brings together the lost distillery’s signature floral and grassy character with orchard fruit sweetness and subtle spice.
Closed for more then 20 years, Rosebank distillery produces some of the rarest and most sought-after Scottish single malts. We have a limited number of bottles available for purchase via ballot until 23:59 GMT on Wednesday 15 February 2023. Details of how to enter are below.
