The Reach: Aberdeenshire hotel buys £150k single malt for whisky club

A hotel in Aberdeenshire has purchased a rare £150,000 single malt to sell to customers at their whisky club.

The Reach by The Macallan was distilled during World War II in 1940 and has matured it for 81 years. It is often dubbed the ‘oldest whisky in the world.’

Meldrum House Country Hotel will be the one of only two luxury Scottish hotels that have purchased the historic bottle – the other is Gleneagles.

The special dram will be housed in the revered Whisky Club within the 800 year-old Cave Bar where 44 Whisky Club members have their lockers.

The hotel said: ‘If the hotel opened the bottle and sold a dram, it would be in excess of £8,000 a nip.’

Deep inside the Club Room, is a special carved out stone cave that would have been the bread oven in days gone by. The whisky will sit on a plinth behind glass to protect it, but specially lit for everyone to admire and view.

Presented in a mouth-blown decanter, ‘The Reach’ cradles on a bronze sculpture of three bronze hands.

Designed by the sculptor Saskia Robinson, one hand commemorates the distillery workers of 1940 who crafted the spirit in challenging times.

Another is the hand of once Chairman of The Macallan, Allan Shiach, whose grandfather headed up the company when the spirit was first consigned to its cask.

The third is that of Master Whisky Maker, Kirsteen Campbell, who carefully selected the special cask used to create The Reach, and who decided that now was the right time to release this exquisite whisky.

The 800-year-old Cave Bar is a fitting place to display this iconic whisky.

With more than 120 rare and independent whiskies on offer, the bar has also added four new whiskies to their collection.

Now available behind the bar for guests for this year is a 2023 Macallan 25-year-old sherry cask, a 2022 Macallan M decanter as well as an 18-year-old and 25-year-old Glenrothes.

‘This is one of the oldest expressions released by The Macallan to date and we’re extremely proud to have it displayed in our Cave Bar,’ said managing mirector Jordan Charles.

‘It’s a chance for our guests to come and view this legendary and very special whisky in all its glory, whilst enjoying a dram, surrounded by our very own history of 800 years at the hotel.’