0131. MACALLAN 1938 (35 YEARS)

MACALLAN 1938 GORDON AND MACPHAIL 35 YEARS

It may be hard to imagine today, but for much of the 20th century, Macallan was primarily a constituent malt in blends. It was not until the 1980s downturn in the market that the distillery decided to focus on its single malt brand. Fortuitously, this coincided with the crest of a wave of enthusiasm for the high quality releases that the distillery had licensed to Campbell, Hope & King and Gordon & MacPhail in the 1960s and 1970s. These remain some of the most collectible on the market. While global single malt sales volume is still lead by Speyside neighbours, Glenfiddich and Glenlivet, Macallan is easily the most sought after. So much so in fact, that they had to open a brand new distillery in 2018, a subterranean architectural masterpiece within the Easter Elchies estate, boasting 36 copper pot stills.

This is one of those Gordon and MacPhail bottlings. Gordon & MacPhail helped Macallan survive during the 1930s and 1940s by buying a regular batch of stock from them, which in turn allowed them to release a lot of these special Macallan bottlings to the Italian market.

These “Macallan-Glenlivet” labels were introduced in the 1950s and could be considered the first official label. Gordon & MacPhail began to use them in the 1960s for Donini. This 35 year old was bottled in the 1970s for new distributors, Co. Import, Pinerolo.