Macallan 12yr Fine Oak

[Macion Grey]

Macallan is actually a rarer whiskey to find on Australian shelves for some idiotic reason (in South Australia anyway), so when I saw this Fine Oak, I snapped it up quick as lightning.

Unlike the original Macallan, which is aged in Sherry Oak from Spain, the Fine Oak series is aged instead in three separate casks: European Oak casks seasoned with Sherry and American Oak casks seasoned with both Sherry and Bourbon respectively.

Now, I am nowhere near the same league as our resident expert AVB in reviewing whiskey, so I will keep it simple. This was unutterably smooth, I have never experienced such a delightfully easy to drink spirit as this. What adds on to the drinkability of this whiskey is the lack of a strong peaty/smoky presence (which is not my cup of tea). Instead, the palate is engorged with fresh citrus, delicate spice, toffee, slight creamy chocolate and vanilla flavours. Really refreshing, and a pleasure to sip.

I am still new to describing the 'nose' of whiskey, so I will skip that for now. It smelt good, okay?



For the money, this is pretty hard to beat. ($69 Aus). It picks up the competition by their balls and impales them on a random dungeon spike, leaving them to regret ever daring to challenge the mighty Macallan (before they die).

 

[sigar_zealot]

I'm glad to see your review of the Macallan FO 12. You may not know this but the FO 12 is not marketed here in the US. Maybe I should say not to my knowledge. My 1st several tastes of anything from Macallan's FO line was disappointing. I guess I was expecting something bigger like their sherried line.

I will say since that time I have become a fan. I have bottles of the 10, 15 & 25 year old's in my smallish collection. If you get a chance pick up a bottle of the 15. It's one of my favorites.

BTW, good job on the review!

 

[AVB]

There is only one store in NY that imports the Fine Oak 12 (that I know of anyway) and they charge $53 USD for it. The complete FO range between the US and UK versions are as follows:

10, 12, 15, 17, 21, 25 and 30 year old. The big jump in price is between the 17 at about $100-110 and the 21 which is about $210-240. Australia has one of the cheapest prices on the 25 at $400AU ($325USD) here.

 

[Macion Grey]

I'm glad to see your review of the Macallan FO 12. You may not know this but the FO 12 is not marketed here in the US. Maybe I should say not to my knowledge. My 1st several tastes of anything from Macallan's FO line was disappointing. I guess I was expecting something bigger like their sherried line.

I will say since that time I have become a fan. I have bottles of the 10, 15 & 25 year old's in my smallish collection. If you get a chance pick up a bottle of the 15. It's one of my favorites.

BTW, good job on the review!

Thats what I loved about the Fine Oak, the citric-fresh smoothness that was so unexpectedly good. I am only beginning my journey into fine single malts (only a couple of years into it), and this is such an approachable spirit for me, as I am still unused to too much smoky flavour. I don't enjoy Oban for example.


Bloody hell AVB... not ready for the 25yr old yet. I have to develop my palate a bit more for that. Might look into the 15 yr old after I finish this one off (not far away, believe me).

 

[AVB]

Well you're ready in case you change your mind