macallan distillery

I have now done nearly 10 Whiskey tours and visited many more for a look around and decided as I mist out on Macallan the last time I visited Speyside it had to be done this time.My father and I arrived after a long hike half an hour early for the tour.The assistants took pity on us and said sit down and try this Whisky to relax you.I think it was a special Distillers edtion at £95 a bottle which they did not charge us for,It was a great dram.The tour itself lasted an hour and a half with a big emphasis on the wood they use for the casks.We also got to nose a lot of demonstration containers to try figure out what we were smelling.The guide was informative and friendly and answered all questions thrown at him.At the end we got to taste 4 excellent whisky`s 12 year fine oak,18 year fine oak,Amber and one other I cant remember but all were excellent so much so I purchased a bottle of the Amber.If you are doing the whisky trail Macallan is a must.

This tour was one of our favorites in the area. I loved the tasting at the end, as our guide did an excellent job of helping explain the differences in what you were tasting and a "101 crash course" for those of us that weren't connoisseurs. It was also nice getting to try different whiskies in a single sitting. The guide was wonderful about answering questions, making it feel personal, and when my husband asked about a few of the different distillery-only bottles (could only be purchased at the distillery), she was kind enough to track down tastes of those as well for us!

Been to several distilleries now and they are all different. Same process of course but each base their own character and marketing if their product. Very passionate people which is great. Was also nice to be take off piste so to speak. Saw some things Ive not seen before - the "tipping room".Couple of samples pre tour, a few en-route and several after. Definitely worth the visit. We had a group of three. Two of us travelled from Aberdeen by train then car.Put this on your list of distilleries to sample.

Excellent tour lasting about 90 minutes. The other couple didn't turn up so we had a very personal guide. Very informative. We have visited quite a few distilleries but this has to one of the best. We had an Oak tree planted on the estate in 2005 so that was another reason for visiting.

A visit to the Macallan distillery combines best of both world. The distillery is set in amazing surroundings with views, which just delight and please the eye. The tasting at the distillery shop is nice and warm with the staff offering a lot of helpful tips as they guide you through the experienceOnly improvement required is on the tours, which need a little more pep and life

My father and I took a tour of the Macallan Distillery in September 2014, and it was the best distillery tour we had. I want to thank our guide, Roy, who was outstanding. He was extremely friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful, and at the end he gave us four samples of different scotches that really highlighted the differences between them. I highly recommend this tour and if you can get Roy as your guide, you're in good hands. Hope to return someday!

Macallan is based on a large area of over 300 acres and we were informed that they have their own barley fields as well as bore wells for the water. The distillery tour was very informative but the tasting thereafter was of course the high point of the trip. The visitors centre had some outstanding collection of old malts and in particular a 65 year old bottle specially prepared by Lalique for Macallan. I am told a similar bottle was recently auctioned for US $ 600,000 at Sotheby's! Alas no tasting is offered from this bottle. The popularity of this brand amongst Single Malt Whiskies is evident from the fact that being unable to keep up production they are now coming out with a range of Single Malts which do not declare their age on the bottle label. I get the feeling many other Single Malt manufacturers of similar popularity will follow suit.

Macallan was one of the whisky producers, I admire the most, but after the distillery visit - it is the best. The hospitality, sophisticated information, the estate itself are all exceptional. I am still after the age statement versions, but their new products are also tasty. Thanks to Brown Forman, Turkey for this tour, regards to Ece and Morag

Thank you for taking the time to provide your review. I'm very pleased that you enjoyed your time with us and it is always great to know that the time we take to train our guides and give them the knowledge to provide a thorough tour experience is worthwhile!I do fully accept that our buildings are far from beautiful and they have sprung up in the past out of necessity and function rather than for their aesthetics! That said, our long awaited distillery expansion is now underway and the new building is architect designed and I promise you it will be absolutely stunning when it opens in early 2017!Thanks again for your time in reviewing us and I hope you are maybe able to come back to see us in 2017 to see how we've changed!

Thank you very much for your review. I'm pleased that you enjoyed your time with us and felt that the tour experience represented great value for money. It is very important to us that we limit group sizes and, as you say, therefore provide an intimate tour experience where guests feel able to ask questions and the guide is able to interact with the entire group.This does of course mean that in busier times of the year we cannot always accomodate everybody who comes along without bookings, but our aim is never to send anybody away disappointed and we'll always do our very best to offer a complimentary dram of the day to any visitor who cannot tour. We do recognise that people make the effort to seek us out and visit us so it is the very least we can do to provide a welcoming dram.Thank you again for taking the time to provide your review - all our feedback is gratefully received!

Many thanks for your review - I am thrilled that you enjoyed your time with us so much. we do feel extremely lucky to have such a beautiful position on Speyside and I'm glad you were able to enjoy some of the stunning views.I do appreciate that not being able to take photographs indoors can be frustrating but as mentioned in other responses we do feel that the risks from a safety point of view with photographic equipment are not worth taking. That said, thank you again for your generous review and I hope we are maybe able to welcome you back, perhaps to our new distillery buildling and tour from early 2017.

Thank you for your review. Obviously both myself and the team here were disapointed to read your thoughts on your experience. We do believe absolutely that our tour at £15 offers good value for money at almost 2 hours long plus five tastes at the end (including our new spirit). We also limit the group size for tours to 8-10 people so that you are able to speak easily with your guide and not feel lost in a bigger group, which we feel gives overall a better experience.In terms of the feel of the visitor centre and shop, we have never wanted to be too 'Scottish' - using tweeds and tartans for example as we don't feel that necessarily reflects us as a company. That said, we actively try to source locally or Scottish made products to sell in our shop - we have Macallan cask wood products made in the Edinburgh area, locally made tablet, copper decanters made in Ayrshire, preserves made in Nairn, Scottish crystal items amongst others. The team here is trained to offer a taste of any bottles we have open - unfortunately as our stocks are always very limited on our top end bottles we aren't generally able to offer those, but everything else in our shop we will always pour so I am surprised and also quite let down that this obviously didn't happen.If you are able to contact me a the distillery I would be very happy to talk through the comments you have made and thank you again for giving us your thoughts.

Thank you so much for your very kind review. We do recommend booking in advance but we're always delighted to accommodate those guests who aren't able to do that. I'm so pleased that you enjoyed Jodie's company on your tour and enjoyed a really positive experience.

Thank you for your review. I'm sorry you felt disappointed at not being able to take photographs indoors. Unfortunately, much like many other whisky production sites, we are very limited by safety legislation and we have always felt it was better to be safe and therefore not allow photography (and therefore cameras/phones etc) where alcohol vapours are at any significant level.That said, I am pleased that you found the tour informative and hope to welcome you back to The Macallan soon.

Thank you for your review. I'm delighted you enjoyed Allyson's company on your tour and found her to be welcoming and knowledgeable. Please don't worry - although work has started on our expansion, we will, if anything, have a much bigger nod to our heritage and history with gallery spaces and a much fuller use of our archive materials - old advertisements, bottles, artwork, photography amongst other items. We fully intend to immerse all our guests not only in the future of whisky making at Macallan but also very much in it's past.Thank you again and I hope we can welcome you back to the new distillery buillding in 2017!