Macallan Art is the Flower is part of the Tree of Life Collection, a tribute to Scottish designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh, whose celebrated lecture on 'Seemliness' gave this expression its name: 'Art is the flower. Life is the green leaf.' A Speyside single malt matured exclusively in sherry-seasoned European oak, bottled at 50.4% volume. THE COLLECTION: the Tree of Life is Macallan's homage to Mackintosh as a national design figure, packaging, labelling and naming all draw from his Glasgow Style aesthetic. The cask-strength sets this expression apart from the standard Sherry Oak range: more concentrated, less integrated, intentionally letting the cask's intensity read clearly on the palate. SERVING: a Glencairn at room temperature; the cask strength has a slow nose, and a few drops of cool water will integrate the spice. At the table the bottle pairs with sticky toffee pudding, dark chocolate truffles, candied walnut, or a Honduran corojo cigar where the spice and the sherry depth find common ground.
Tasting notes
Deep amber, copper highlights.
Rich dried fruit, raisin, fig, polished oak, cherry, orange, almond, treacle.
Sweet oak, raisin, vanilla, ginger, apple, whisp of leaf tea.
Long, sweet, rich, full-bodied.
Founded in 1824 at Easter Elchies on the banks of the Spey, The Macallan is the Speyside distillery that built its reputation on the cask rather than just the spirit.The house famously runs its own oak-selection programme: wood is harvested from carefully chosen Spanish and American oak forests, coopered to Macallan's specification, then shipped to bodegas in Jerez to season with oloroso (or Pedro Ximénez, or Palo Cortado) for two to three years before being sent to Speyside for whisky maturation.The 'curiously small' stills produce a richer, more textured spirit than larger Speyside stills typically deliver, and the cask programme, sustained at this scale, is what defines the modern Macallan profile.
