Wow! Sugar rush!

Well, this is my first taste of a Macallan. I have a bottle of Macallan Rare Cask that I've not yet opened (as it was bought for my birthday) and bought this as a kind of test to see what delights I'm in for. My palate and smell isn't the most honed, and although I have a very sensitive sense of smell, I can rarely pick out the different flavours that get mentioned - I just like what I like. 'Sherry Bomb' is a phrase that's bandied around a lot at the moment if you watch any whisky videos on Youtube, with dried fruits and raisins cropping up a lot with sherry-casked whiskies. Well, with this Macallan even I can smell the fruits, the nose doesn't so much fill the glass as whack you round the face with a bunch of grapes, it's almost too much (but not). the nose is actually more potent than the palate for me and makes for a whiskey that defies it's 12 years of age. Never had anything like it. I tried it alongside a Glenlivet 18 - just for random comparison - and The Glenlivet 18 is quite bland next to the Macallan (For 'bland' read 'more subtle'). I feel I need to drink a lot more to really form a true opinion, but for the moment it's delicious and a world away from my other Speyside whiskies (not better or worse, just different). Is it worth twice the price of many other 12-year-olds? Yes. Yes, it is...if you like this sort of thing. It is VERY sweet on the nose, more like an actual sherry than a whisky. It's still strong on the tongue, but far less sherry and more like you'd expect from a good whisky, and very smooth. Is it worth £70? Depends on your taste I'd say. I think it's too expensive myself and will try the Double Cask next...