A $ 2 million whiskey bottle and a few other things there are in Scotland

Millions of tourists a year plow through the various whiskey breweries in Scotland - a drink that is one of the country's leading export industries and is considered a way of life. Boaz Volinitz went on a journey following the wooden barrel that gives birth to the world's most expensive whiskey

The climax of a visit to the Maccallan Whiskey Visitor Center in Scotland is reserved only for VIPs under the VIP setting, including a late-night chef's dinner at which attendees will enjoy the most prestigious tasting presentation in the secret basement set up at the back of the distillery. At night, in a deep circle in the earth, a glass field behind thousands of barrels of aging, bottles worth tens of thousands of dollars appear and open to a limited audience once in a while. Such as the average Scotch lover would never think of inviting, on an average night at the bar, because of the sanity and cost of living in the city.

Still, a representative sample from that one-off, varied tasting demonstrates how far the art of single malt malt's deep-flavor development can go, while keeping the principles of production and aging in the barrel. And in the background, to create the basic flavor of McAllen at a time, and like any single malt distiller, McAllen performs marrying barrels - not only in flavors and aromas but also in hue, which is why an average of about 150 barrels is used in each barrel. ("Batch") for the creation of basic flavor uniformity.

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Whiskey is one of Scotland's leading export industries. McCallen Visitor Center (Photo: PR)

McAllen Whiskey Visitor Center in Scotland (Photo: Courtesy of Sa'ar Gavish, McAllen Ambassador to Israel, official website)

9 Guinness Records for the world's most expensive whiskey bottles

In the tasting basement, whether it's The Macallan Reflection full of oak and dominant cherry flavors. The Macallan No.6, which comes to the table after 20 years in a barrel full of spice from the world of tea and orange bitterness. Balanced and outdated. The Macallan M Decanter contains 40-year-old barrels and is fruity sweet, very wintry in the atmosphere it produces. End of the line A meticulous process, oral teachings between masters of wood and barrel production, and a manufacturing plant using chemical and physical control technologies for extracting and producing whiskey liquids.

A group of invitees to the ultimate high-end distillery of Macallan Whiskey learned while making the scented progress among a host of distilleries and intoxicating landscapes in the county that not everything Maclean whiskey takes from here. That is to say, in Macalen products, the quality mark states 100% use of only natural materials (in color - meaning no caramel additives), and although water and soil allow them within the distillery complex, there is a reason why Macalen's barrel production process is 10 times more expensive than the equivalent production in competing distilleries. And the unique manufacturing process, which ends only in one place - at the distillery, together is the reason for the high relative price for each series and bottle. But there was also a tradition of breakthrough exclusive sales, such as the one held in October this year at the Sotheby's New York sales house, which sold a bottle for $ 1.9 million - the most expensive price ever paid for an alcoholic beverage, including wine. McAllen is also the only whiskey in the world that has broken since the early 2000s, 9 times in a row at Guinness Peaks for the world's most expensive whiskey bottles.

Whiskey is one of Scotland's leading export industries, and culture and way of life for thousands in Speyside alone. And those who do not adhere to themselves will surely find a solid livelihood in the millions of tourists browsing the various breweries many months a year - or the profits derived from outside boutique sales, such as $ 1.9 million.

Dominant oak flavors and dominant cherries. The Whiskey Barrels at the Visitor Center (Photo: PR)

Barrels and Whiskey Visitor Center Macalan in Scotland (Photo: Courtesy of Sa'ar Gavish, Macalan Ambassador to Israel, official website)

350,000 barrels that age whiskey at any given moment (Photo: PR)

Barrels and Whiskey Visitor Center Macalan in Scotland (Photo: Courtesy of Sa'ar Gavish, Macalan Ambassador to Israel, official website)

It all starts with a tree

So those barrels, whose production costs are so high, are made of wood that everything comes from it and spills into it. It is the source of the barrel shape, taste and color of the whiskey. And he comes across the sea. At McLellan Distillery today they leisurely, under the strictest scientific supervision and guidance, 350,000 barrels that age whiskey at any given moment. Less than 1% of them are ex-Burban barrels (those that contain American whiskey made from corn), and most barrels are European. The plant's vertices believe that about 80% of the impact on each of the distiller's products is wood, the key being the type of oak tree - European or American.

McAllen is the only Scottish distillery to have its own wooden master. And behind this title, for years, one of the most important people was behind the distillery's success. Master Stuart McPherson, and he's the one who kept and raised hundreds of thousands of oak barrels. Most were designed in Spanish collaboration and spiced with Oloroso sherry (dark, rich and old-fashioned sherry), which contributes the depth of its own enchanted flavors to the final product. McPherson, who retired a few years ago, remains active as a senior consultant at the distillery, and he says the American oak is more compact and its use is decidedly marginal. Because the master of the tree prefers a European oak, which is less dense, but contains 5 times more tannins (flavor generators known for dry red wines) - compared to American.

The life of the barrel tree according to McPherson, from the time of his birth in the land, his aging, to his turning into a barrel, is a world around. The American oak will be hatched in the 70s and Europeans, between 100 and 120 years. In any case, both will be sent for natural drying for at least a year and a half, then sawed off, and then sent to Rhaz, in the autonomous community of Andalusia in southern Spain - the town where Macalan's whiskey barrels are built, and then to Budge Winery, where they will be filled with the Olorosso shells, The magical imprisonment at the McAllen Distillery for decades in the woods, five more on the road and then each barrel and its private purpose - single years or decades of onion hiding. And divine providence.

McAllen is the only Scottish distillery that has its own wooden master (Photo: PR)

McAllen Whiskey Distillery in Scotland (Photo: Courtesy of Sa'ar Crystal, McAllen Ambassador to Israel, official website)

About 80% of the impact on each of the distillery products is wood, the key is the type of oak (Photo: PR)

Whispering Center Whiskey Visitor Center in Scotland (Photo: Courtesy of Sa'ar Gavish, McCallan Ambassador to Israel, official website)

The estate - the brand logo embedded on all bottles

The Edrington Beverage Corporation (under which there are other brands such as: Glenrothes, Highlands Park, The Famous Grouse, Naked Grouse, Brugal Rum), McLellan owners, has invested a whopping £ 500m in the McAllen brand, 140 million of which in building the world's first visitor center of its kind The whiskey, which opened to the public in June 2014. An investment amount that reflects McAllen's "share height" in the global market - when it comes to the world's third largest single malt in quantitative terms, and the world's first largest monetary value.

The center was designed by the prestigious Roger Strick Harbor Architects' Office, a name in the urban landscape of modern London and not just in it. This time, what underpins the design concept is minimal damage to spacecraft landscapes, using maximum wood and local stones. The center roof is one of the world's most complicated timber structures, and includes 1,800 individual wooden beams divided between 2,500 different elements, and 380,000 components, almost none of which are equal or equal in size. And all to produce a mountainous scenery that blends perfectly with the mountain side on which it was erected.

McAllen's estate is just yards from the distillery. Established in the early 18th century for a Captain in Her Majesty's Navy and throughout the centuries her familiar form has been preserved, becoming the emblem of the brand embossed on all bottles of McAllen. It has two bedrooms, and the rest are dedicated to the display and tasting of the various McAllen series. A thorough review in one of the rooms reveals, for example, that during the Second World War no bottles were produced, and at the end of the production, the 100-year-old bottles, which lay right in front of you, touching the shelf, returned to a magnificent history of flavors and aromas. These are bottles that are not for sale and are potentially worth millions of dollars.

Established in the early 18th century for a captain in Her Majesty's Navy. McAllen Mansion in Scotland (Photo: Courtesy of Saar Crystal, McAllen Ambassador to Israel)

McAllen Estate in Scotland (Photo: Courtesy of Saar Crystal, McAllen Ambassador to Israel, official website)

A grand history of flavors and aromas. The Whiskey on the Mansion (Photo: Courtesy of Saar Gavish, Ambassador of McAllen in Israel)

Whiskey at the McAllen Estate in Scotland (Photo: Courtesy of Sa'ar Gavish, McAllen Ambassador to Israel, official website)

Between Tuscany and the Golan Heights

And up to the prestigious mega-tasting series - some of the mesmerizing were the same farmlands of northeastern Scotland, in the Speyside county that borders the Spye River. The river that millions of gallons pour into McAllen's whiskey barrels and other, smaller brands. And the sky with the same British grayness that sheds above, protecting deep green and brown hues borrowed from the imaginations of Tuscany or the Golan Heights sometimes. So deep green that it also touched the hearts of McAllen's super-refinery architects, who agreed to minimize damage to the landscape by constructing a structure that reminded first-time visitors of the Moomin huts, designed to be part of the forest rather than a shuttered square and not flowing into it.

So all this deep green, from which occasional building plots and landowners are derived, always accompanies you from Aberdeen Airport to a possible first strategic stop at Craigellachie Hotel - a hotel with a bar that contains an amazing collection of more than 900 Scottish Maltese singles, alongside a restaurant Copper Dog, which serves traditional Scottish cuisine, almost every dish wants to miss itself in Scotch.

The name of the hotel, and not by chance, is also the name of a well-known whiskey brand to locals. The hotel, restaurant and bar - are a major intersection or a necessary rite of passage for the Whiskey County Whiskey Road, with hundreds of active distilleries that the greater part of them have not yet met in the Israeli palate. And every year, in April 2020, specifically for all who are interested, the Spirit of speyside festival, with the distilleries and their branches open the gates to visitors in the area.

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Millions of gallons of it are poured into the whiskey barrels. River Spy (Photo: Courtesy of Sa'ar Gavish, Ambassador of McAllen in Israel)

Speyside River Spay in Scotland (Photo: Courtesy of Sa'ar Crystal, Ambassador of McAllen in Israel, official website)