Macallan Harmony Collection Edition 6
Official Limited Release | 46.3% ABV
Score: 5/10
Average. In a Good Way
TL;DR
Simply not worth the price
We Live and Learn
I'm not a Macallan guy.
That's not intended as a slight on anyone who is. I don’t expect there will be that many official bottling Macallan fans either writing for, or subscribing to, Dramface. Personally, I've never really been tempted by an official bottling; apart from a Macallan 12 I bought years ago, back when I was still working out what I liked. Of course, I know some people who have cupboards and shelves stuffed with Macallan official bottlings – mostly unopened.
I have a few independently bottled Macallans on my shelves, because that's where I think the value and quality lies, and I'd guess most people would say the same. Well, I think most people are drinking the stuff rather than lining it up for show or planning on flipping it later as a retirement fund. I sometimes wonder just how much Macallan gets opened versus the amount that is on display or squirrelled away – will there be a tsunami of Macallan on secondary markets in 20 years’ time? I think there is a good chance of that, but good luck to those investing in that way now.
All the same, a new, official, Macallan has turned up on my shelves in the last few weeks. Technically, it isn't mine though and if you've ever doubted that a marketing department with a bottomless budget can talk an ordinary punter into an expensive bottle, this example proves that they can. The punter in question lives with me and I’m hoping that the punter doesn’t read this as she may object to that descriptor.
To explain how this has happened, I need to go back a few years. In the late 2010s I was nowhere near the Scotch rabbit hole I'm in now. I'm not sure I even liked whisky – Drambuie maybe at that point. My wife did like it though, and she was far keener on it than I was. Ten pounds on a dram in a bar sounded daft to me. Fifty notes on a bottle sounded dafter, even extreme.
Towards the end of 2019 we spent an evening in Edinburgh and that included some time in a well-known whisky bar on the Royal Mile which also regularly had live music on. I nipped to the gents at one point and came back to find that Mrs Campbell had ordered us a tasting flight. It was around £70 and exactly the type of flight they are looking to sell to tourists who have little actual whisky knowledge. At the time paying £70 for it felt like an act of recklessness; financial vandalism. I couldn't tell you now what was on that flight with any certainty, but I do remember a Classic Laddie was involved and thinking that it was a bit hot for my tastes. How times have changed.
A few years on, and we've swapped places. My interest in whisky has gone off the scale and hers has drifted, not completely, but almost completely. Red wine and gin are her thing, she'll have a bourbon now and then, and she'll try whatever I've got open if I proffer a Glencairn across the couch, but it isn't her drink any more. She still comes to the Glasgow Whisky Festival with me because that’s something we have always done together, and I'm not about to complain about it.
So, it was a surprise when only a few weeks ago, she shouted through from the living room one evening that she fancied trying a whisky. She'd seen it on Instagram. According to the advert, it was incredibly coconutty. I was instantly a bit sceptical.
I was pleased though. Anything that gets her back near a Glencairn is fine by me. Coconut does turn up in whisky of course. Mostly, as I understand it, courtesy of American oak, where compounds called lactones give you a note reminiscent of sun cream and Bounty bars. But there's a distance to travel between a vague whiff of coconut on the nose and the full-on piña colada experience she seemed to be picturing. I told her it probably wouldn't taste like that. Then I did what any sensible husband does and ordered it anyway.
It arrived a couple of days later in fairly plain packaging. She assumed it was yet another whisky delivery for me, right up until it was handed over and she saw it was addressed to her. I don't think she'd expected a bottle of brown liquid either, but she cracked it open that evening. You can probably guess the rest.
Review
Macallan Harmony Collection, Inspired by Fresh Coconut, matured in Sherry-seasoned American Oak & Ex-Bourbon, 46.3% ABV
£140 paid
The bottle tells us the maturation has been in Sherry-seasoned American oak and ex-Bourbon casks. My flippant nature automatically equates that to whatever was lying around at the time. At least it’s over the magic 46%, a lot of sources online suggest this isn’t chill-filtered, but I can’t say that it is definitively not filtered. As a Macallan we know it’s not been coloured, and they actually tell us that on the bottle.
There is no age statement on this, which for the price you might validly expect.
Score: 5/10
Average. In a Good Way
TL;DR
Simply not worth the price
Nose
It looks sherried so the fruitiness of the nose was slightly surprising. It’s initially fairly muted, but with a bit of perseverance you are deep into apple and mango, lemony citrus and pineapple. Sweet vanilla notes and marzipan.
The apple absolutely dominates. The sherry “seasoning” in the cask certainly hasn’t had much effect on the nose.
Palate
The taste is initially bitter and slightly woody, but does give way to pastry along with apples, mangoes, banana, and liquorice. It’s lacking in complexity, but I suspect it is designed that way.
Water does soften and round it out, but it’s not revealing any major hidden flavours.
Maybe someone with a better palate will get more coconut from this as I don’t get it much, but maybe that’s a good thing since I really don’t like the smell or taste of coconut. Mrs Campbell, who has a pretty decent palate, couldn’t get any coconut from it either.
The mouthfeel is initially creamy and relatively thick with a medium finish that quickly becomes drying.
The finish doesn’t have the spice you might expect from a sherry-involved dram and it seems to give way quickly to woody apple before tailing off quickly.
The Dregs
There was possibly some coconut in there if you went looking for it, but nothing close to what the advert had promised. I’m not altogether sure the coconut doesn’t appear simply because you are led to expect it. A few sips in, the bottle was pushed back across the table and it now lives on the Charlie Campbell shelves.
Which leaves me with an official Macallan that I would never have chosen, paid for by me, for someone who's already lost interest in it. The advert did its job. It sold a bottle. What it couldn't do was make the whisky taste like the imagery conjured up.
As for getting my wife back into whisky, that'll take a few more twists yet. I haven't given up. In the meantime, it would be rude not to give her bottle a proper go.
And I have done so, it’s easy enough to sip and it’s definitely not something you could refer to as a bad whisky at all. If it actually tasted of coconut I’d probably have gotten rid of it by now. I have a strong dislike for the taste of desiccated coconut, and to me it doesn’t. Having looked at a few other reviews of this online there is a lot of raving about the fresh coconut but I just can’t see it is justified. The sherry ‘seasoning’ appears to me to have added very little to this - maybe some colour, a cynic could suggest.
Would I replace this once empty? Not a chance. Do I regret buying it? Yes, I probably do but as they say, there is a whisky for everyone and the possibility that this one would be the one that would bring Mrs Campbell closer to what is a fairly intensive hobby for me was worth the punt.
At £140 I think this falls into the category of one of my most serious dramming mis-steps. I can see this one as more of a £60-£70 bottle and in all honesty if I was to adjust the score for price it would probably be a maximum 4/10.
Whether it is simple FOMO or susceptibility to the most basic marketing, I guess I can be influenced like everyone else from time to time.
The trouble is, I’m so far down the line that I can think of almost endless options where I could have easily spent the cost of this bottle on two better bottles. You live and learn.
Score: 5/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. CC
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