Anecdotes of Ages Collection
A Licence to Distil
Alexander Reid, an English teacher turned tenant farmer, was granted a distilling licence in 1824.
In the Year 1824...
Each unique label on one of these 13 original bottles details significant stories relating to our history, community, and The Macallan Estate.
On his seven-acre holding, rented from the Earl of Seafield’s Estate, one can still see the fields of the Estate to this day, but we will never catch sight of Reid. No likeness was ever recorded. His face remains a mystery. Nevertheless, his legacy endures with the whisky he created, now celebrated the world over.
1824 was also eventful elsewhere. English armies ground away at wars in Ghana and Burma. Beethoven’s Choral Symphony premiered in Vienna. Progress (of a sort) marched the British Empire towards an embrace of industrial technology. Closer to home, in Edinburgh, the first municipal fire brigade of George IV’s entire kingdom was established.

The Story behind the label
Reid’s whisky was admired from the outset. The Reverend Gordon, vicar of the local Parish Church, was delighted with a very different spirit from the one his vocation exalted, noting its “superior quality”.







The sheep included in the image is testament to flocks farmed at Easter Elchies since 1543.
From the same zodiac, characters born that year are said to be ‘mellow’ and ‘docile’, with an attributed element of ‘fire’.

On The Macallan Estate
Captured by Mary McCartney, in the whorl of a tree with the snap of her lens, it is one of thirteen unique bottles around which art, history and great dedication have been wrapped in the most remarkable collaboration.
The Experience
-
Colour
Caramelised peach
-
Nose
Classic antique oak, dried fruit and fig combined with hints of pineapple and mango layered with a decadent chocolate strawberry note
-
Palate
Warm chocolate with light nutmeg and ginger, oak spices and sweet oak opening into pineapple and coconut with an unexpected strawberry and hazelnut burst
-
Finish
Complex with a medium to long finish of chocolate, sweet oak and lightly spiced peach
-
ABV
46.7%





