Cracked open a bottle of this tonight - this was the original gran reserva bottling all of the first fill sherry casks and was bottled in 1997. Now I have a theory that off all the recent vintages of Macallan 1979 was one of the best years (although prior vintages were far superior - however for all the Macallan Gran Reserva bottlings I feel that the 1979 bottling was far better than the 1980 and 1981 bottling). This bottling has now been stopped by Macallan - probably due to the fact that they don't have enough sherry casks!! Ok so maybe that's just me being skeptical.
Anyway I am a big fan of sherry cask whisky but feel that the Gran Reserva is just on the level of as big sherry as you can go without the whisky being over powered by the sherry. Anyway well here goes the tasting notes!
Nose: Intense Sherry, bitter chocolate,meaty with an oily orange back ground and marzipan.
Taste: Again rich sherry, lots of heavy fruits figs and dates very oily and coating.
Finish: Very long and lingering, oily and with a long dry finish that leaves a real richness in the mouth.
Comment: If you like sherry cask whiskies then you will love this - just wish that they had bottled this at a minimum of 46% it could have been a really huge whisky but at 40% it is only big.
Score: 90/100 could have been a lot higher if it had been bottled at 46%
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