Is Macallan considered a Highland or a Speyside?

[Gary Wells]

Is Macallan considered a Highland or a Speyside?
On the Macallan bottle they mention that it is a Highland, but I came across a site the other day that listed it as a Speyside?
What category would you place it in strictly using it's characteristics as a guideline?

[Soundmangt4]

If they say it's a Highland on the bottle, then a Highland it is. Period.

[Gary Wells]

Originally Posted by Soundmangt4

If they say it's a Highland on the bottle, then a Highland it is. Period.

Thanks, Soundmangt4, for the response. That makes sense. Maybe Wikipedia, go figure, noted it as a Speyside.

[nitehawk55]

Well I think the Highland region is considered part of Speyside , some just like to make the area known .

[blenderm]

I think that it's the other way that Speyside is part of the Highlands as it's about 40 times smaller. Both are considered as different whisky areas, and that these areas have a different influence on the whisky distilled there. Geographically Campbletown is part of the Highland region but is a different region for the whisky distilled classifying whisky

[Theus]

Originally Posted by blenderm

I think that it's the other way that Speyside is part of the Highlands as it's about 40 times smaller. Both are considered as different whisky areas, and that these areas have a different influence on the whisky distilled there. Geographically Campbletown is part of the Highland region but is a different region for the whisky distilled classifying whisky

I guess you meant that Campbeltown is part of the Lowland region..

Theus

[blenderm]

Nope, geographically it's part of the highland region. The lowland region is anything that's south of a line drawn between Greenock and Dundee and on all the maps I've seen the Campbletown peninsula is part of Argyll and that's part of the highlands.

[Theus]

Originally Posted by blenderm

Nope, geographically it's part of the highland region. The lowland region is anything that's south of a line drawn between Greenock and Dundee and on all the maps I've seen the Campbletown peninsula is part of Argyll and that's part of the highlands.

I've always known Lowlands as the region below the line drawn between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Theus

[blenderm]

Historically it's between Greenock and Dundee and the malt whisky regions use the same line. When Loch Lomomd distillery was built in 1964/5 they positioned one set of stills to the north of the line and one set to the south as they'd found that the highland line ran through the distillery.

[Theus]

Campbeltown distilleries are bellow the line.
If it is just a matter of location...



Theus

[Theus]

Originally Posted by blenderm

Historically it's between Greenock and Dundee and the malt whisky regions use the same line. When Loch Lomomd distillery was built in 1964/5 they positioned one set of stills to the north of the line and one set to the south as they'd found that the highland line ran through the distillery.

By the way... Nice fact!
Thanks

Theus

[jwise]

I've always considered the Macallan as a Highland in my tasting. I would have been surprised to learn otherwise.

[Derek]

Macallan's distillery is in right in the heart of of Speyside, just outside Craigellachie, next to the River Spey. They would have every right to call it a Speyside Malt.

Geographically, part of Speyside is in the Highlands, but Macallan is in Banffshire, which is a bit further east.

[Gary Wells]

Many thanks for the responses. I like it, so I guess that it really doesn't matter where it comes from.

The original delineation of the Scottish whisky producing regions was based more so on tax than style. England did step on the industry somewhat and felt it justified to tax different regions at different rates, with volume and output coming secondary (tax-wise) to location.

Speyside has historically been considered a Highland Whisky, at the time when there were but four official regions that had been identified – Highland, Lowland (only three remain), Campbeltown (which had also been removed and re-included as an official region before) and Islay.

Given that Speyside is home to the greatest concentration of distilleries in Scotland, it then was decreed that it deserved its own status as a region. Thus…Speyside IS a Highland Malt and a Speyside Malt at the same time. Most will identify (when speaking in more broad terms) that they have a preference for a Highland Whisky (i.e. Oban or Dalmore) vs a Speyside Whisky (Balvenie or Macallan). They both qualify as Highland, yet are distinctly different in terms of geography and flavour profile.

Also, Islay is a stand-alone region in itself, while other island whiskies do not have this distinction. Sky, Jura, Mull, Arran and Orkney will identify themselves as being from a specific island but there is no formal “Island” designation.

To further confuse the issue, many consumers are “blinded” by the arbitrary geography of it and believe that region dictates flavour profile. To have it said – not all Islay Whiskies are big, peaty monsters and accordingly not all Speyside Whiskies are fruity and fun. Bunnahabhain 12 YO is very lighly peated while Curiositas from BenRiach is a phenolic bomb.

Hmm…now to some fun stuff…

They had a good thing going with The Macallan. All of the proprietary bottlings were matured (not finished) in Spanish Sherry Oak Casks. But, they decided to expand a bit and offer a different expression of The Macallan and launched the Fine Oak Series in 2004 to high praise from the global whisky reviewers. Jim Murray for example awarded it “Best New Scotch Brand” when it was launched, and others have agreed. They are as different as two expressions could be, and consumers have a distinct choice to make when asking for a Macallan. And hey – they are welcome J

I know this is likely more answer than you had anticipated but I am of the mind that no information is useless. I have also enclosed some more electronically for your perusal.

[Gary Wells]

I sincerely appreciate all of the info and will put it to good use. I have not tried the Fine Oak yet. I do have 4 bottles of 18 YO Mac and 1 bottle of 12 YO hidden away. I had a small sample bottle of the Mac 18 YO and it seemed to me to be a cut above the 12 YO.

[Jenflower8]

i would also agree to go with what is on the bottle. i've found different maps seem to all be...well...different. i ran into this while prepping for an informal scotch tasting we were doing with friends. i tried to list them all by regions and a few seemed to be questionable according to the maps.