Macallan’s second Home Collection single malt, River Spey, was inspired by the namesake river that flows through the heart of the distillery’s Easter Elchies estate in Speyside. The River Spey has always had importance to Macallan; distillery founder Alexander Reid established the distillery on a 1.5-mile stretch of the River Spey in 1824.
The new whisky is aged in a combination of sherry casks made from both European and American oak, as well as re-fill bourbon casks. Bottled at 44.8% ABV, the single malt is available now for pre-sale ($487), exclusively at The Macallan e-boutique; it’s expected to ship on March 14th. While the whisky itself is new to Macallan, another major draw of this release is the set of limited-edition giclée art prints by artist Michelle Lucking that accompany it. Lucking used watercolors to create a suite of six original paintings of the River Spey in total, though only three are included in the art folio that comes with the whisky. The front of the bottle’s box features one of the prints that highlights the Spey in wintertime.
Macallan unveiled the first whisky in its Home Collection, The Distillery, last April, in celebration of its new distillery on the Easter Elchies estate in Speyside. That limited edition also featured a set of three watercolor prints by artist and distillery employee Colin Rizza. Macallan has collaborated with many artists over the years, for special bottlings like the Home Collection or Anecdotes of Ages Collection and art festivals like Miami’s Art Basel, where it unveiled its M Collection in 2022.
