The Macallan 40-Year-Old Breaks Cover At Over $6,100

One of the truly rare birds in the echelons of collectible Scotch whisky is The Macallan 40-Year-Old. Only one ever non vintage release of a 40 year expression from this distillery occurred, and it got snapped up pretty fast by most accounts after popping up in travel retail sometime back. A second, very limited bottling of it is now about to be released, but there’s a trick or two to getting hold of it, so read on to learn how if you want one.

The idea for this new The Macallan 40-Year-Old, according to the distillery, came back in 2006 when master whisky maker Bob Dalgarno and his team were putting together The Macallan 30 Years Old Sherry Oak. A total of 27 sherry-seasoned oak casks had apparently been selected from 9 different years of distillation and put down for maturation. Most of the spirit from these casks were combined and “then filled into nine marrying casks at the customary marrying strength.”

Dalgarno, at the time, chose to have a tenth cask filled as well and laid it back down. The whisky in this refill butt, already matured for three decades, was kept at natural strength. The Scotch was checked again in 2011, and it was decided to let it continue maturing for another five years, resulting in the current iteration of a 40-year-old about to come to market.

The Macallan-40-Year-Old has a planned release price of £5000, or over $6,100 USD. Since it is such a small release, what has apparently been decided is that it will be available through the Distillery Shop online only. As the distillery expects demand will be high, they are going to hold a virtual ballot draw to determine who exactly can have access to buy one. Here are some details to know:

• Registrations will close at 9:00am UK time on Monday 24th October 2016.
• This whisky can only be delivered to addresses within the Channel Islands, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
• You will contacted in the coming weeks if you have been successful with details as to how you can purchase.
• By registering your details you are not making a purchase and there is no obligation to buy if you are successful in the ballot.
• Final price will be subject to local taxes and duties.

If this all sounds like something you are game to take a crack at, head to The Macallan website and register. Good luck!