Macallan Gold Double Cask 40% NV

Professional reviews

Serge Valentin (80)

Only a double cask? No triple cask yet? No four-oak? Now I always thought the regular ‘Gold’ was pretty good (WF 80) so let’s check what more woodwork has done to the young NAS juice…

Colour: light gold.

Nose: I like, really. Soft cider and beer, plus vanilla and fresh pastries, that’s not a bad combo at all. So far, so good.

Mouth: definitely modern, with the wood in the front. Ginger cake, vanillin, sawdust, maize bread. Behind that, a fruitier maltiness, ripe apples, mirabelles, apricots…

Finish: medium, with the expected cinnamon.

Comments: not bad at all, but let’s remember that the equation wood = time is just wrong. More wood makes a different whisky (a modern one, as we say), not an older one, or a more mature one. It’s simply flavouring, which does not mean that it couldn’t work. It kind of did here, I find this better than the Rare Cask Batch No2.