Review #15: The Macallan Edition No. 3
Distillery: Macallan
Region: Speyside
ABV: 48.3%
Age: NAS
Price: $19/dram (at a bar)
Color: 0.7, Amber
Nose: Extremely fragrant. There are layers of fresh flowers and fresh fruit (particularly citrus) just bundled up on top of each other along with some vanilla and sherry. Absolutely wonderful to smell, I almost didn’t want to drink this and just keep smelling it.
Palate: The palate starts sweet and ends a tad bitter (not overly so). Up front, you get a lot of the creamy and sherry goodness with some honey and vanilla. Towards the back, there’s a bit of floral tea (which is where the bitterness comes from). Wasn’t able to pick up any of the fruit here though.
Finish: Finish is very long. That floral tea note transitions from the palate and keeps going. You get a little bit of the fresh oak spice in here as well.
Conclusion: This one I’ve wanted to try for a while. The nose is fantastic, maybe the best I’ve tried. The palate, while good, left a bit to be desired. If some of those fruity/citrusy notes from the nose were able to transfer themselves better to the palate, I think this would have done better. The finish was nice. Overall, another wonderful glimpse into what Macallan can actually produce instead of the not-so-special stuff that comes out in their regular 12 year old release.
Final Score: 81
Scotch whisky review #15, Speyside review #7, Whisky Network Review #16
Scoring Legend:
- 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
- 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
- 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection.
- 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
- 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
- 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
- 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
- Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.
Scotch & Sheen 
