Macallan. Twenty-six whiskies.

The Macallan stands on the Easter Elchies estate near Craigellachie in Speyside. Alexander Reid, farmer and teacher, was granted a licence to distil there in 1824. Since 1999 the house has belonged to Edrington.

Two things determine the flavour. The stills are small (the house itself calls them curiously small), which gives a lot of contact with copper and produces a full, fruity distillate. And the cask: Macallan has oak casks made to measure in Jerez de la Frontera and filled with sherry before they come to Scotland. Sherry Oak relies on European oak, Double Cask combines European and American oak.

In June 2018 a new distillery building opened, designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and nominated for the Stirling Prize in 2019. For these ranges the colour in the bottle comes entirely from the cask; nothing is added.

Distilling small and investing big in casks: that is the recipe.

Alongside the bottles from the distillery itself, there are Macallans from independent bottlers: houses that buy casks and decide for themselves when they go into the bottle. Those bottles look different and are often much stronger.

Gordon & MacPhail has the longest connection with the distillery and bottles under the name Speymalt. Douglas Laing uses its XOP series for the oldest casks, Signatory bottles under its own name and McGibbon’s is an older series.

What you find on such a label is usually not an age but a vintage, plus the cask number and the strength. We have seven of those bottles, from eleven to thirty-one years old.

Speymalt, XOP or Signatory: the same distillery, a different label.