Every expression The Macallan creates has a story. In the nearly 200 years that the renowned Scottish distillery has meticulously crafted some of the finest products ever produced from the Scottish Highlands, none has a more extraordinary tale to tell than The Reach—the oldest expression that the brand has ever released to the public.
“It’s hard to put into words how truly special this expression is,” The Macallan’s Master Maker Kirsteen Campbell tells Esquire Middle East. “It encapsulates the spirit of The Macallan and the timeless nature of our mastery and craftsmanship, which continues to this day.”
That mastery began 81 years ago on The Macallan Estate in Craigellachie, Moray, Scotland. It was 1940, and the country was under particularly duress, with many life essentials in short supply. To carry on, many had to look back past modern techniques, and lean on the wisdom of generations past.
“As coal supplies dwindled in 1940, the distillery fell back on older, traditional ways of generating heat,” Campbell tells us.
Instead of coal, the distillers used peat to malt the barley and fire the stills, which ended up creating something like nothing else.
The expression was then assigned to a cask and laid to rest, one of the last produced before The Macallan was compelled to close its doors for the first time in its history. It sat safely, however, and in the decades since has carefully been looked after, waiting for the day that it may be ready for the world to enjoy.
The first to discover the masterpiece that The Reach would become was Campbell herself, the first female Master Maker in The Macallan’s history. She and her team were carrying out another careful inspection of the oldest casks, not sure what they may find.
“We carry out detailed assessments on a regular basis and adopt an even more meticulous approach for our oldest casks – carefully checking, monitoring, and managing our aged stocks. We decide on an expression’s peak maturity by working as a team to deep dive into the expression by undertaking a detailed nosing and tasting, which was the process for The Reach. Through this detailed assessment we build our understanding of how flavours are created and how flavours evolve through time, and when is the optimum time that each cask should be released,” Campbell tells us.
In a single, sherry seasoned oak cask, Campbell discovered what would become The Reach.
“With a deep auburn colour, this single malt has a gentle smoothness. There are so many flavours on the nose. For me, there’s rich dark chocolate, orange marmalade, plums, sweet cinnamon, and leather. There is also a rich, sweet smokiness which gives a nod to the spirit’s history,” she tells us.
“The subtle smoky note is attributable to the peat that would have been used when malting the barley and firing the stills,’ she continues. “On the palate, we have treacle toffee, bramble jam, crystalised ginger, nutmeg, charred pineapple, and that hint of woodsmoke.”
Readying it for unveiling, The Macallan knew they had to create a housing that reflected the rarity and significance of The Reach. To do so, they collaborated with one of Scotland’s finest artisans, sculptor Saskia Robinson.
Robinson created the timeless sculpture featuring three hands, producing countless drawings from every perspective before working in a physical medium. The veins, nails and skin detail are recorded in extraordinary accuracy, modelled on an artist’s impression of three hands. The sculpture is cast in bronze and the glimmer of the metal contrasts beautifully with the dark amber expression.
Each hand represents characters in The Macallan’s history and their unique story. One commemorates the distillery workers of 1940 who crafted the spirit into existence. Another is the hand of one-time chairman, Allan Shiach, whose grandfather headed the company when this remarkable product was first consigned to its cask. The third is for Campbell herself.
The surface of the glass decanter features subtle indentations that match the fingerprints of the bronze hands which support it, while a beautiful cabinet crafted using wood from a fallen elm tree, which is thought to have been on The Macallan Estate in 1940, houses the decanter.
The Reach, of course, is as highly limited as you may expect it to be—with only 288 decanters available worldwide.
For Campbell, it is a priceless artifact and the highest moment in her career, one that she finds incredibly humbling as she reflects on the brand’s extraordinary history and the many lives that have been dedicated to its mastery.
“It’s hard to put into words how truly special this expression is. The expression encapsulates the spirit of The Macallan and the timeless nature of our mastery and craftsmanship, which continues to this day. The Reach is truly the work of many hands, and it’s an honour to be part of its legacy.”