What have they done to The Macallan

[emanday]

When I opened my online version of the Scotsman this morning I had to be picked up of the floor after reading this...

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=218862007

Maple Syrup in good Malt Whisky? Sacrilege

[paddyscar]

Hi Mary:

I think this says it all!

"Amber smells like the best maple syrup you've ever had. You have to really get your nose in to detect the Macallan" [-X

I like a hint of maple in some desserts, but can't imagine drinking a glass of it

I certainly could drink a glass of malt whiskey, though Hold the syrup

Frances

[emanday]

Have to offer a wee confession here.

I used to like a wee dribble of maple syrup on pancakes, but after a full week in a hotel in Toronto with the dining room thick with the smell of hot maple syrup every morning, I now find the smell nauseating.

The very idea of mixing it with good malt whisky - Yeeuuuuck

[paddyscar]

They make 'maple flavoured' bacon here, which I've bought. It's a lessen for grocery shopping - Read the labels!

[DavidWW]

No-one here ever drunk a drop of Drambuie or Glayva?, - I recall being very impressed 2 and a bit decades ago when I discovered that Quantas business class carried Glayva; far superior to Drambuie in my opinion

There's plenty of others, many of which have been about for a while, including, in my humble opinion, the very best of the crop - Chivas Brothers' Lochanora.

This is exactly the same idea, - it's a not a malt whisky, it's a liqueur, based on whisky, but in this case a weel kent malt.

Glenfiddich released one a wee while ago, and this is just Macallan getting in on the act. It's just marketing spin that's concentrating on the Macallan single malt link.

Dinna panic

David

PS Since Macallan single malt will be an absolute minimum of 8 years old, more likely 10, that means you need to have decided 8 years of more ago how much to produce, and if you get that calculation a wee bitty wrong on the side of too much, and the marketing department can't shift more of the single malt product, that leaves interesting choices : -

(a) Leave it in bond to age longer, - you don't pay the duty until it comes out of bond - but you still have to cover the ongoing storage costs, the continuing angels' share, etc., and the older a malt become the smaller the market as the price goes up exponentially !

(b) "Finish" it by switching it to a different cask for a year of two (you name the alcohol there's an equivalent cask finish, including just recently beer barrels ), - some malts now have quite ridiculous numbers of such finishes, but I'd bet that the market has long since reached saturation point.

(c) Sell more to the blenders. Macallan is a first rank malt (there's second, third, and "don't ask" ranks ) , which means that every blender wants some of it in the 30+ single malts in a mid-range blend which will contain 30% malts/70% grain whisky, but then there's limited potential here since the blended market is quite static, and most well known blends have a long since established taste in which the proportions of the first rank malts is fixed.

(d) Launch a new premium blend in which the proportion of malts can be as high as 70%, e.g. The Antiquary (one of my all time favourite blends), even 100% when it becomes what's known as a vatted malt, - a recent example is Johnny Walker's Green Label, - but the launch marketing costs are horrendous.

(e) Find some other way to "package" it, such as a new liqueur

(f) Whisper it very quietly, produce a new "cream" liqueur.

dww

[Bob C]

Since Macallan single malt will be an absolute minimum of 8 years old...

They say that they are using 3 year old whisky which meets the minimum age requirement. My guess is they have to add something to cut the edge in order to be drinkable. I have tasted spirits straight from the still in various states of refinement and in most cases unless it is mixed with something IMHO it is almost undrinkable. Also the test market is in the USA. That seems to confirm PT Barnum's phrase "There is a sucker born every minute."

Bob

[DavidWW]

I just couldn't resist posting in this thread the story behind the original cream liqueur, - Bailey's Irish Cream.

One of the best, if not the best, situations I know of concerning product innovation and marketing.

Once upon a time, the Irish dairy industry was very successful in terms of selling ever more cheese. That's great, but a by-product of cheese production is cheese whey which is a very expensive effluent to treat.

Around the same time, the increasing demand for semi-skimmed and full skimmed milk meant that there was an embarrassing surplus of cream.

Solution? Simple!

Use the emerging technology of ultrafiltration to remove the remaining protein from cheese whey, sell this to ice-cream and other food manaufacturers as a protein concentrate, and then convert the lactose (the main remaining constituent) in what remained to ethyl alcohol, a straightforward, established technology.


Can you see what's coming



And then add the surplus cream to this "industrial" alcohol, and you have Bailey's Irish Cream , absolutely loved by bars and restaurants as they charge the same price as for brandy etc., but their margin is much, much higher

David

[emanday]

DavidWW said

No-one here ever drunk a drop of Drambuie or Glayva?, - I recall being very impressed 2 and a bit decades ago when I discovered that Quantas business class carried Glayva; far superior to Drambuie in my opinion

Love both, but agree on the superiority of Glayva!

However, David, they were made with care and attention being given to the compatibility between the whisky and other ingredients!
Not convinced that has been applied in this case.

Bob said

That seems to confirm PT Barnum's phrase "There is a sucker born every minute."

Yup

[DavidWW]

Since Macallan single malt will be an absolute minimum of 8 years old...

They say that they are using 3 year old whisky which meets the minimum age requirement.

Spot on.

For the product to be described as Scotch malt whisky, it must have been produced in Scotland, from malted barley, water and yeast, and be aged in Scotland in oak barrels for a minimum of 3 years !

(Grain whisky can involve other grains such as maize, even rice, but the enzymes that convert the starch to fermentable sugars must derive from barley.)

My guess is they have to add something to cut the edge in order to be drinkable. I have tasted spirits straight from the still in various states of refinement and in most cases unless it is mixed with something IMHO it is almost undrinkable. Also the test market is in the USA. That seems to confirm PT Barnum's phrase "There is a sucker born every minute."

Bob

A three year old malt is surprisingly drinkable

I'd be doubtful if recently produced Macallan is involved here, as, at the age of 3 years, there's potentially major market changes over the next 7 years or so that would mitigate against "throwing away" a potentially much more valuable product at the age of only 3 years ..............

I've had/have two casks of Springbank, one sold at an impressive profit on the original investment a few years ago, the other approaching 8 years old, and the annual sample bottles from the age of three years old have been and continue to be very drinkable!

Call me cynical if you like, but when I think about it, there's no regulation of Scotch whisky liqueurs, so who's to say just what Macallan's "Amber" really contains

David

[DavidWW]

DavidWW said

No-one here ever drunk a drop of Drambuie or Glayva?, - I recall being very impressed 2 and a bit decades ago when I discovered that Quantas business class carried Glayva; far superior to Drambuie in my opinion

Love both, but agree on the superiority of Glayva!

However, David, they were made with care and attention being given to the compatibility between the whisky and other ingredients!
Not convinced that has been applied in this case.

.....snipped ................

I won't even be sampling it

David