To be honest, we were a bit sceptical of Macallan Amber, for a long time. Happily sipping the 12yo as our casual Macallan, we didn’t even bother to look at the much cheaper Amber, thinking it wouldn’t even compare. Until we tried it at a tasting and we loved it.

It’s perfectly balanced, maybe a bit shy, but even when drinking it inbetween some powerful drams, it keeps delivering. Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but when tasting the 12yo and Amber side by side, we tend to choose Amber as our winner. I’m a massive Mac12 lover, so that’s interesting…

This is a beautiful whisky and incredibly affordable. How does it compare to the 12yo? The 12yo has a darker tone to it, with much more wood and stewed blackberries, offering a slight but pleasant bitterness, it feels older, the sherrywood had another kind of influence, with a nice walnut to top it off. If this is autumn, the Amber is summer. The bumblebee on the photo agrees.

Conclusion: try everything, don’t be put off by price tags, (silly) names, brands, opinions. Keep an open mind an remember that only you have to like it. What was your surprising discovery?