The Pour

I’ve had plenty of 18- and 21-year-old whiskys, and have by and large been a happy sipper. This past week, however, I forgot about age and tasted something very special with The Macallan‘s brand ambassador Jeremy Fonicello. It’s called the Rare Cask, and it would be a great addition to my bar — or yours. A testament to the skills of Bob Dalgarno, Macallan’s whisky maker, the Rare Cask is made using 100 percent sherry casks. (The distillery is highly selective when it comes to the oak trees it buys – they all come from northern Spain.) Dalgarno has forgotten age and focused on taste, and he’s come up with a winner. I got baking spices and mild chocolate, and the finish possessed a smokiness that lingered a good while. A drop of water mellowed the taste, as it should have, and I savored the rest of the pour with much satisfaction. Macallan uses no coloring additives; the mahogany tone is the result of the sherry cask aging. The MSRP on this bottle is $300; let me know if you find it for less than that.