I try to access the control panel of The Bottled Dog, but I cannot manage to remember the password. I try a random one – which does not work. I try another, also without success. On the third attempt, the browser takes longer to give a negative answer, and my heart fills with hope. We need to confirm you are human – select all the pictures that have stairs. I panic. I don’t know if it’s an attention thing or just pure tension. But the challenge already makes me uneasy. Oh but wait. That thing in the photo is a ship. Ships have stairs, right?
Same thing with those traffic lights with timers. I prefer ignorance over knowledge. Knowing how much time I have to cross the street makes me speed up, not be more cautious. That’s why humans can’t know exactly when they will die – they would be divided between those who speed up and those who remain inert. Thinking about it, smart traffic lights are a great existentialist parable.
And then there’s the worst of all, the bank token. Forty-five seconds to write four digits is not enough. Not under the blatant threat of having my account access blocked. Without pressure, I can do fifty characters a minute. Without even looking at the keyboard. With this passive violence, I can’t even manage four in two hours.
Things need time to happen properly. When they happen, they happen. The launch of The Macallan Night on Earth in Brazil is proof of that. The whisky was developed to celebrate the New Year, but it arrived here in mid-April. After that, it still took me over a month to write a piece about it. But, though untimely, here it is.
The Macallan Night on Earth is a single malt that makes a strange promise. “A spectacular unboxing.” The illustrations on the boxes – yes, plural, I’ll explain – were done by the Chinese artist Nini Sum. This raises the hypothesis that the whisky was created with a focus on the Chinese New Year, which happened on February 10. What makes me not so late.
As for the packaging, I can’t help but draw a parallel with matryoshkas. One doll inside another. The boxes are like that. Both made of cardboard. You open one horizontally, only to find another, blue, that looks like a Dubai building with dubious architecture, inside. This one opens vertically, finally revealing the beautiful and muscular bottle of The Macallan Night on Earth. It was fun the first two or three times. Then, I got lazy, set the box aside, and left the bottle alone on the shelf.
The Macallan Night on Earth uses American oak sherry casks, European oak sherry casks, and American oak bourbon casks, similar to the now-defunct Triple Cask line. It’s a no-age-statement whisky, like its sibling, Classic Cut, which I have reviewed before. Sensory-wise, it brings notes of fruits and a certain burnt caramel, or toffee, which is quite pleasant, distinguishing it from the current The Macallan offerings available in Brazil. It’s a malt that always invites the next sip.
Actually, the whisky’s full name is The Macallan Night On Earth – The Journey. It’s the second expression in a series of “Nights on Earth,” conceived to celebrate the New Year. Its sibling is The Macallan Night on Earth – In Scotland. The expressions have slightly distinct sensory profiles, but all prioritize drinkability.
A bottle of The Macallan Night On Earth – The Journey costs around R$ 1,200 (one thousand two hundred reais) in Brazil. Recommending it, therefore, is a relative exercise. If you’re looking for a luxury single malt with great drinkability and packaging that can entertain you for hours, it’s perfect. However, if you want a whisky with a more complex sensory profile and greater intensity, you might want to focus on another The Macallan expression available here: the Classic Cut.
Or, perhaps, you should buy a bottle and wait until next year. This way, you won’t be late like me but perfectly in sync with the celebrations of the coming year. As the cliché goes, the latecomers will also be exalted.
THE MACALLAN NIGHT ON EARTH – THE JOURNEY
- Type: Single Malt
- Distillery: Macallan
- Region: Speyside
- ABV: 40%
Tasting notes:
- Aroma: caramel, brown sugar, toffee, red fruits.
- Flavor: Caramel, vanilla, toffee. Slightly spicy, sweet finish leaning towards caramel.