The Classic Cask Macallan 21 Year 1995

Tasting notes:
The Classic Cask Macallan 21 Year 1995 opens with crystallized honeycomb and crystallized lemon rind made into soap, then coated with caramel and extract of star anise. We got also fresh flannel bed linens, “slept” in only by a marzipan mannequin, left there by a so-called friend pranking you, hoping to shock you when you went to bed. I got also Aladdin and Princess Yasmine rolled up together in an Oriental carpet that was, unfortunately for them, not a flying carpet. (Fortunately, it was also a prank, and they weren’t being kidnapped.) It has the smell and luster of highly polished brass goddesses—it’s a luxurious nose, one that’s akin to the feeling of striding into a five-star hotel while dressed in a Valentino tuxedo. If you brought this whisky home to meet your parents, they’d embrace it and hope that you didn’t mess up this relationship, like that last one. (And the one before that, and the one before that, and the one before that one, too.)

The mouth is creamy and lit by a muted-back bluelight, like a Miles Davis trumpet solo, circa 1959. It evokes a white tie affair in the 1920s long before the crash; really, what we’re saying in these different ways is that everything about this Macallan is elegant and iconic. The caramel—still there—and the marzipan—ditto—swirl in arabesques of impishness, jockeying at each moment to see which assumes the dominant position.

The finish is big, like you would feel while crawling through a tiny porthole on your escape to safety. Will you fit??? (Will that finish kick all the way down my throat?) Can you make it through??? (How orotund can this be? How much can it fill my gastrointestinal tract?) As the arms of the angels pull you through, you’ve left behind your old life, and what lies ahead is more than ever you’ve imagined.
 
 
Rating:
On the scale of birthday presents–
The Classic Cask Macallan 21 Year 1995 is the one given to Michael Douglas by Sean Penn in David Fincher’s movie The Game–The gift is life-transforming; it entangles him in moments of the utmost refinement as well as the most louche; it takes him on a voyage of self-discovery via reflecting to him what he believes reality to be. And, although he’s characterized as one of the richest people in the world, the cost of his present is enough to elicit a “Whoa!” when he sees his half of the bill. Whoa! This is iconic.
 
 
 
                                                                             –Bill
 
 
 

–Our thanks to the Classic Cask and Spirit Imports for the sample!