The Red Collection

At the end of 2020, McCallan released the Red Collection to great fanfare, but what are the bottles and what makes these bottles so special? We're fortunate enough to have one of these Red Collection bottles with us today, but before we look at the bottle in much more detail, let's look at the information about the collection in general. And starting off with probably the most fundamental question of all, why is it called the Red Collection? Well, if you look at the McCallans founder, Alexander Reid, and we sort of pretty much find our answer there. The surname Reid derives from, to use layman's terms, someone with a red face or a ginger hair. And if you look at the McCallans website, you find much more romantic terminology, such as somebody with sanguine hair or sanguine locks, but either someone who was ginger or had a red face. Now, again, if you go back through McCallans So on the handwritten label series, w And also when you look at the anniversary malt series, a bottle w So McCallan has got a long Now we know why it's called the red collection. Well, what's the purpose be And when I was researc And t It says, the red collection features a carefully curated selection of ongoing aged expressions and So the first of all, let's look at the age statements that have been released already and were part of the original release. And sort of, let's look at them in a bit more detail. So there were six bottles that were released of the first trench of bottles from the red collection. You had the 14, the 50 and the 60. Now these were released at 11,300, 37,500 and 49,000 pounds respectively. Now McCallan's got a long It was a 40 year old for travel retail. There's been several other 40 year olds in the past. The 50 year old, of course, you've got the anniversary mark that was released in 1983. And you've also got that in other collections as well. And of course, the 60 year old, you've got the 1926, 60 year old, w So they are But then what made they released a 71 year old at 58 and a half thousand pounds, a 74 year old at 61 and a half thousand pounds and a 78 year old at 65 and a half thousand pounds. And that 78 year old was the world's, it's the world's oldest single malt w In terms of pricing, it's interesting to note that the 50 year old bottle was released just under 13,000 pounds cheaper than the 50 year old bottle from the Peter Blake anecdotes of ages series. Now the only differentiation that I can see in terms of these two bottlings is that the Peter Blake one had a vintage statement. So it was 1967 50 year old w And then the red collection, these are non vintage expressions. So you get an age statement, but you don't know what years have come from t So these could in theory be vattings of multiple ages with the minim So the 40 year old might contain 50 60 70 year old w So it's a bit of a, it's an easy way to work around for distilleries if you've got lots of these old stocks. And the raw part of a limited edition, but no one really knows how limited the editions are. So it doesn't say how many have been released of each series. The first set of these bottles went under the hammer at Sotheby's. And t But these bottles were being sold for charity. They were being sold for a food bank in London. And they also had one off artworks on them designed by, I'm going to destroy t I'm very sorry, havey as Nare's. So these have unique illustrated labels. And there were two sets done with these special labels. One set was sold via Sotheby's and one set was retained by the McCallan distillery. So we're seeing more and more of McCallan releases and these And, And, They're doing some really good work for charity here, w That's over a million pounds being donated via Sotheby's and McCallan. But then the cynic in me and the person who That's a heck of a price to pay. But that was a charitable donation from the person who ever bought it. So you can offset that against your taxes and things So there are more factors in play with these charity sales than may, what may first meet the eye. As we've seen, there's been six releases, the 40, the 50, the 60, the 71, the 74, and the 78. But we get back to that opening comment that I made from the McCallan press releases, w So I would bet, if I was a betting man, I would bet a lot of money on the fact that there's going to be more McCallan red collection bottles in the future. I t But I t So let's take a look at the bottles. What are they Well, as we mentioned earlier, we've got one here with us today. And the first t So it's fantastic detail. You've got the Easter Elki's house up here. And again, McCallan as ever, natural colour has to go on the box. It's really important to them that they don't colour their w It's all natural colour. So fantastic, beautiful oak box. And it's got a magnetic latch here, w And then the, So t You get a bit of marketing blurb on your little certificate there. And then look at t So that comes out and you can slide the bottle out and it even comes with its own little coaster. So there's the box. It's a beautiful piece of presentation. So you then get to the bottles themselves, w They feature a very deep step at the bottom of the bottle, w And they've got a polished base as well. So these are sort of bespoke bottles that McCallan have probably commissioned the molds for. So they're not off the shelf molds really. The label itself. And again, we mentioned the anniversary mock series earlier. And t One, you've got the big red age statement in the background, sorry, in the foreground. And in the background, you've got lots of little text. No one really bothers to read, but t It's lovely we know, we know you make great w And the only grap So 700 mil, t 1%. You've got a limited edition n And then you've got the bottled in 2020. Now, why did it say bottled in? But I wonder if they're going to release a 40 year old in 2021. I just t I couldn't be massively wrong, but it's just my haunch. But you've got the comparisons here with the anniversary mocks that went on for sort of 16, 18 years. So I t So they really are beautifully presented bottles. And again, you get t So if you want to display it, and we've got a video coming out shortly about how to store your w And if you want to store your red collection bottle outside the box, you can of course put it on the only t But if you compare it to other McCallan releases And yet it comes in exactly the same bottle and box and presentation as the 40 year old. So bang for buck, the 40 year old for me is probably the better buy. And I don't know, there's just somet But when you look at the original retail prices, these weren't expensive bottles in the same way that Leek was. And again, why is that? Well, maybe they're doing an ongoing series, maybe they're going to be doing more of them. Maybe it's not meant to be Maybe it's meant to be more of a ultra Now, a lot of these bottles have been appearing at auction. So it's interesting to take a look at some of these prices. But first of all, let's get rid of that coaster and let's get rid of t I'm a bit nervous about having it up there with me. Because the cask is drying out massively in our office and I t So as we've said, most of these bottles have appeared at auction. They've all been released and all been made release, And these are sort of So that 40 year old, the auction record price for the 50 year old was at u00a352,000. Now wait for the 71 year old, u00a359,000. There's been no recorded official sales of the 74 year old, even though one did go into auction, it didn't make its reserve, but I t And the 78 year old, the record for that is u00a392,500. So what is going on? Why is that 60 year old making nearly double the price of the 78? So you've got the world's oldest w And you've got the 60 year old and that'selling for almost double the price. Well, there's only been one recorded sale of the 60 year old. Now the 60 year old was released in two versions. It was available individually and it was also available as a guest set of the 40, 50 and the 60. Now, we don't know the release n There might be hundreds of these, but there might only be say 150 of the 60 year old and 150 of the 74 year old. And they've probably not all been released yet. Again, these were released at the end of COVID in 2020 or the end of COVID is the mess that it was in the UK in 2020. And these are probably going to go for sale in travel, retail and other ultra high net worth locations So I t Now, that's had a knock on, So they're trying to complete the set. But people soon realize with the red collection, if you had the money to build a full set, you still couldn't make it because you couldn't find the 60 and you couldn't find the 74 year old. So it's quite another fascinating piece of marketing by McCallan, whether that's done intentionally, w So there we have it. It's the McCallan red collection, celebrating McCallan's association with the colour red. Originally, there's just six bottles part of the series. And as I banged on about so many times, I t And are they going to be a good buy? Are they going to be a good investment? Yeah, I think that 40 year old at u00a320,000, if you compare it to the likes of the 40 year old that was released for travel retail, Now, it'so t Same with the 50. It's quite an affordable way to buy a 50 year old, especially when you compare it to So overall, I really It's a master stroke of marketing. There's lots of different facets. You're tying into the old roots with There's just so much going on here. And if it does continue, we're moving to a bigger series of bottles I t And if you're looking to buy any bottles from McCallan or sell your bottles from McCallan, head to the Mark Little website. We've got loads of informative guides, and we've got a shop available with lots of bottles available to buy with worldwide s