Last week Macallan announced a new series with four expressions, all without age statement, in 4 different price points. Are you having some deja vu? Because I did.

For a moment I thought it must be some reposting of the original 1824 series announcement which incidentally happened exactly 4 years ago in October. But a second and deeper look revealed the truth of a new Travel Retail series which will completely replace the 1824 series and all other TR expression starting January 2018.

But the discussion on this series in one of my whisky FB groups, turned to the 1824 series faster than you could say Jack Robinson. Not too many people here tasted because the 1824 series didn’t reached us and didn’t show up on shelves.  Yes, it means we’re still ‘stuck’ with the Fine Oak series, although I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing or a good thing :-D. To make a long story short, we all pretty much agreed that the 1824 series was a forgettable one exception of the Sienna which was quite decent relatively to its price (Ruby excluded from the discussion for it’s the premium offering).

I then looked at my notes and found that I never published them on the blog, so in ‘celebration’ of the new Macallan Quest series, I took out my Sienna archive sample, opened and re-tasted it to see if our memory of its decency was real.

The Macallan Sienna (43%, £74.55/€76,98)

Nose: Dried red fruit, vanilla and sweet maltiness to balance the sweetness, baked nutmeg, white pepper, milk chocolate and after a while, a bit of dried strawberries and cinnamon.

Palate: Lots of spiciness but it’s gentle. White pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg, oak spices, dryness, vanilla and sweet light dried fruit and milk chocolate.

Finish: Medium length, sweet dried fruit, lingering milk chocolate, oak spices with a dash of pepper and vanilla.

Thoughts: Yes, as we remembered it’s still a very decent offering. There’s a good balance and it has some depth and layers to explore. In fact, I now remember that in the recent review of Macallan Edition No. review I claimed it was the first decent offering since Sienna. Glad to see I wasn’t mistaken and that my memory served me well.