MACALLAN 1967- A LICENCE TO DISTIL
Alexander Reid, an English teacher turned tenant farmer, was granted a distilling licence in 1824. 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. 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”.
Each unique label making up the Anecdotes of Ages Collection shares special stories relating to our history, community, and the beautiful natural landscape of The Macallan Estate. With this A Licence To Distil label, Sir Peter Blake’s take on that year brings one of Edinburgh’s horse-drawn fire engines into the picture, symbolic of an achievement to pair with Alexander Reid’s. While more than a century would pass before anything resembling modern industrial practice arrived at The Macallan, the creation of the Distillery was welcome news. The sheep included in the image is testament to flocks farmed at Easter Elchies since 1543.
As for the whisky itself, it was distilled in 1967, coincidentally, in Chinese chronology, the Year of the Ram. From the same zodiac, characters born that year are said to be ‘mellow’ and ‘docile’, with an attributed element of ‘fire’. This precious liquid selected by Sarah Burgess, presents rewardingly complex, exotic, fruited and light spice notes.
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.
