Macallan 12 Fine Oak

Macallan 12 Fine Oak

A review by Tommy Byrne

Overall rating: 8/10 (Single Malt notation)

Macallan is one of the most famous distilleries in the world.  It is predominantly known for its special maturation process involving sherry casks. Even if Macallan has an extensive fan base, they keep aiming at new markets with many new ranges of products.  Macallan 12 years old Fine Oak, is part of that new range of 8 whiskies called Fine Oak, where bourbon, American and European oak casks are vatted together. It could not find any information backing this, but I believe this wide range is aimed, in my own opinion, at a younger and less experimented crowd.    

Macallan 12 Fine Oak is a pale gold whisky that takes quite a while to open up. At first I couldn’t find anything really complex and interesting in the nose, aside for the obvious oak and cereals, but after 10 minutes, it started to develop delicate sweet hints of honey and vanilla. The palate is dry, but quite soft with the same features than its nose. Some toffee and older wood casks are revealing themselves after a while.  The finish a little bit short, but not unpleasant at all.

Unlike the traditional Macallan sherry cask whiskies, the Fine Oak range, or at least its 12 years olds expression, is putting a greater emphasis on American oak and bourbon casks.  There are very little spices in that whisky, it hard to find any components of its sherry casks.   I seriously doubt any malt heads to drink this whisky on a regular basis, I see it more a whisky to offer as a gift to a novice drinker.  Overall, it’s a good whisky to start the apéro, but it’s too weak to follow a meal and act as a digestive.