Situated in the Speyside region on the banks of the Spey River in easter Elchies near Craigellachie, the barley-growing farmer and schoolteacher Alexander Reid was granted a distilling licence in 1824 and founded the Macallan distillery. Macallan was thus one of the first legal distilleries in Scotland. In 1882, the distillery was acquired by Roderick Kemp, whose family expanded the business over the next 100 years. From time immemorial, The Macallan has been coveted by blendmasters, who continue to use it in their blended whiskies. It first appeared as a bottled single malt whisky in the 1960s, but initially only in the Speyside whisky region. It was not until 1980 that it was decided to launch The Macallan on a larger scale within the UK.
The Speyside lies in the north-east of the Highlands and is considered the centre of Scotland's whisky production. Around the towns of Elgin, Rothes, Keith and Dufftown there are more distilleries than anywhere else in Scotland, including big names such as Glenfarclas, Glenlivet, Macallan and many more.
Elegance and complexity are often cited as characteristic features of Speyside malts, but the variety of whiskies produced here is too great to speak of a single style.
Scotland and Scotch whisky is a global trend, a development that has led to a flourishing whisky scene in Scotland. There is hardly a week that goes by in which there is no news about another new distillery being built or the reopening of a distillery that has been closed for a long time.
Scotland, together with Ireland, is today considered the motherland of whisky, whose roots there go back to around 1500 AD.
Situated in the Speyside region on the banks of the Spey River in easter Elchies near Craigellachie, the barley-growing farmer and schoolteacher Alexander Reid was granted a distilling licence in 1824 and founded the Macallan distillery. Macallan was thus one of the first legal distilleries in Scotland. In 1882, the distillery was acquired by Roderick Kemp, whose family expanded the business over the next 100 years. From time immemorial, The Macallan has been coveted by blendmasters, who continue to use it in their blended whiskies. It first appeared as a bottled single malt whisky in the 1960s, but initially only in the Speyside whisky region. It was not until 1980 that it was decided to launch The Macallan on a larger scale within the UK.
The Speyside lies in the north-east of the Highlands and is considered the centre of Scotland's whisky production. Around the towns of Elgin, Rothes, Keith and Dufftown there are more distilleries than anywhere else in Scotland, including big names such as Glenfarclas, Glenlivet, Macallan and many more.
Elegance and complexity are often cited as characteristic features of Speyside malts, but the variety of whiskies produced here is too great to speak of a single style.
Scotland and Scotch whisky is a global trend, a development that has led to a flourishing whisky scene in Scotland. There is hardly a week that goes by in which there is no news about another new distillery being built or the reopening of a distillery that has been closed for a long time.
Scotland, together with Ireland, is today considered the motherland of whisky, whose roots there go back to around 1500 AD.
