The Macallan

The Macallan was originally named Elchies Distillery and obtained its distilling license in 1824, making it one of the first batch of legally licensed distilleries in the Speyside region. Prior to this, there may have been a farm distillery here, as it was very close to one of the few cattle drovers' road intersections in Speyside. Easter Elchies House dates back to 1700. The distillery's owners have since carried out proper restoration on it. The distillery's founder was Alexander Reid. He passed away in 1847, and after several changes of lease, it was acquired in 1868 by James Stuart, a grain merchant from Rothes and owner of Glenrothes Distillery (see "Glenrothes" and "Glen Spey"). In 1886, he purchased the distillery from the Earl of Seafield and rebuilt it in stone that same year (the distillery had previously been wooden). He then sold it to Roderick Kemp in 1892. Kemp, who had owned Talisker Distillery from 1879 to 1892, rebuilt Elchies Distillery, renamed it Macallan-Glenlivet, and greatly improved the quality of the distillery's output. After Kemp's death in 1909, the distillery's ownership transferred to a family trust. Family members such as Harbinson and Shiach managed the distillery until the current owners acquired it in 1996. A new stillhouse was built between 1954-1956, equipped with 2 washbacks and 3 spirit stills, all with shell-and-tube condensers (the distillery had previously used worm tubs). Then between 1965-1966, the distillery added another 7 stills in a purpose-built stillhouse, which doubled the distillery's capacity to 90,000 proof gallons per year. In 1967, Macallan-Glenlivet became a public company, with Kemp's descendants holding 62.5% of shares to fund construction projects and stock more inventory. The second stillhouse closed in 1990 but reopened in September 2008. In 1970, The Macallan reached one million proof gallons for the first time, with 93% used for blending whisky. Two years later, bottled Macallan sales doubled, and the board decided to retain more mature oak casks and increase production by 24%. The number of stills increased twice more, in 1974 (18) and 1975 (21), but in 1975 orders from blenders dropped dramatically, "the most severe decline in the distillery's history," which motivated the board to make the decision to further allocate inventory to single malt Macallan bottling. In 1996, Highland Distilleries (now Edrington Group) merged its shares with Suntory's and successfully conducted a hostile takeover of Macallan. It was delisted in 2001. Since 2011, Macallan's production has increased from 8 million to 10 million liters of pure alcohol. In summer 2014 it increased capacity by another 1 million liters through the installation of additional washbacks. The distillery has built 8 new warehouses, each holding 26,000 casks, with plans to increase to 14. A brand-new distillery costing £120 million has now been completed on the Macallan estate, with an estimated capacity of 17 million liters of pure alcohol. In 2013, the renowned Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and their collaborators won an international design competition with their breathtaking and innovative semi-underground design that would not affect the surrounding landscape. Construction was undertaken by the Robertson Group based in Ayrshire. Trial production began in November 2017, and the new distillery was commissioned in July 2018. The two original distilleries have been mothballed, though they could potentially be brought back into production in the future, even though the new distillery has space for more stills. The architects wrote: "Inside the building, a series of production units are arranged in a line, with an open layout that can display all stages of the production process simultaneously. The distribution of these units is reflected in the building's roof, which forms a slight undulation using wooden grids. Beyond Macallan's gardens, green hills rise and fall." The distillery's overall architecture blends perfectly with nature, and the view from inside the distillery is intoxicating. In October 2019, the distillery was awarded "Best New Building in Scotland" by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland.

In the late 19th century, Macallan's spiritual home was used by the Earl of Elgin as a shooting lodge. It was while vacationing here that the ninth Earl learned of his appointment as Viceroy of India. Macallan frequently takes center stage at auctions and has repeatedly claimed the title of world's most expensive whisky. Recent auction records include: £814,000 in May 2018 (a bottle of Macallan 1926-1960 with a hand-painted label by Valerio Adami), £1.2 million in November 2018 (a bottle of Macallan 1926-1960 with a hand-painted label by Michael Dillon), and a historic high of £1.5 million in October 2019 (Macallan 1926-1960).