The Macallan Exceptional Single Cask Series is a collection of exceptional whiskies that have been hand selected as suited to showcasing Macallan whisky in its purest form. The Macallan whisky makers do not go looking for a whisky to join this series, rather a cask could be elevated to the status of Exceptional Single Cask when it is happened upon during routine assessment and tasting. Macallan whisky lovers can be sure that each single malt in the Exceptional Cask series is nothing short of extraordinary.
The Exceptional Single Cask bottles began life in the early 2000s with the first iteration of 5 bottles known as the Exception Cask, Cask Strength bottles. In 2017 the range was restyled and relaunched with a range of bottles ranging from 12 to 22 years-old. The collection has been expanded since then, whenever the whisky makers happen upon a dram worthy of the collection. There are now 31 bottles in the series.
Due to the fact that the whiskies in this collection only ever come from a single cask, there are extremely limited numbers of each expression. The highest number of bottles in any particular release was was 643 – the number of bottles from 2017/ESB-9100/13 that there are in the world. The smallest release number for any cask is from 2017ESB-9182/01.
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On Macallan’s website you can read about each bottle in the series so far, including the cask type, the distilling date, the reserve date, the bottling date, and the name of the whisky maker who selected it for the series. The bottles are now only available on the secondary market from specialise retailers.
Recording-Breaking Bottles: Macallan Exceptional Cask Edition
Macallan currently holds the record for the most expensive bottle of whisky ever sold, at £1.5 million for a Macallan 1926, so it is no surprise that the bottles in the Macallan Exceptional Cask Series sell for astonishing prices on the secondary market. Below is a list of the most expensive bottles from the Exceptional Cask Series sold at auction.
The top three most expensive Exceptional Cask bottles sold on Dram Data are:
- Macallan Exceptional Cask 1950 67-year-old (2018/ASB-1683/13) for £76,000
- Macallan Exceptional Cask 1950 67-year-old (2018/ASB-1683/13) for £72,000
- Macallan Exceptional Cask 1950 67-year-old (2018/ASB-1683/13) for £58,000
The top three most expensive Exceptional Cask bottles sold on Whisky Auctioneer are:
- Macallan Exceptional Cask 1950 67-year-old (2018/ASB-1683/13) for £72,000
- Macallan Exceptional Cask 1950 67-year-old (2018/ASB-1683/13) for £56,000
- Macallan Exceptional Cask 1950 67-year-old (2018/ASB-1683/13) US Import £50,000
The top three most expensive Exceptional Cask bottles sold on Whisky Stats are:
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- Macallan Exceptional Cask 1950 67-year-old (2018/ASB-1683/13) for £45,100
- Macallan Exceptional Cask 1950 67-year-old (2018/ASB-1683/13 for £40,701
- Macallan Exceptional Cask 1997 20-year-old (2017ESB-9182/01) for £22,000
You may notice that one bottle makes up 90% of the above list. The Macallan Exceptional Cask 1950 67-year-old is by far the most valuable and sought-after bottle in the series. This is due to its healthy age and vintage statements.
Macallan shows no signs of stopping when it comes to production of luxurious whiskies. You can rest assured that whenever Macallan announces something new the world of whisky will holds its breath to find out what spectacular bottlings the distillery has on offer.