Taste Testing The Finale Of The Macallan Harmony Collection: Inspired By Fresh Coconut (The Harmony Collection 6)

Most whisky lovers remember the excitement when The Macallan first unveiled The Harmony Collection in 2021. It seemed to arrive with exactly the right themed aesthetic, at exactly the right moment.

There was already plenty of hype around The Macallan releases, and collectors hardly needed another reason to pay attention. Yet The Macallan Rich Cacao as a release felt unusually sleek. In line with current Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) rules, you obviously cannot introduce actual chocolate into the making of an authentic Scotch single malt. But here was a whisky release built around the idea of chocolate, created in collaboration with the legendary Spanish pastry chef Jordi Roca and his world-famous bean-to-bar chocolate atelier Casa Cacao to - convincingly - capture the flavour references of chocolate in whisky. It comes wrapped in very pretty sustainable packaging that has clearly received a lot of thought in design, and yet still embodies a minimalist aesthetic that resonates with our modern culture's professed values about sustainability today.

The Harmony Collection has been a reminder of just how shrewd the people behind The Macallan can be at understanding what consumers crave before we have the chance to articulate it ourselves. The liquid is still the most important thing. Still, no other whisky brand had been able to add something to the modern conversation about whisky (a 500-year-old drink no less) quite as masterfully in a collectible annual release, in an immediately graspable flavour theme, with a story that places The Macallan within the wider culinary world, in design and in contemporary culture. None of these elements were completely new ideas, but the brand has been able to assemble these elements in the right proportions and with remarkable precision. A sherry-matured whisky has become something so fresh and easy to talk about. In a way, it was perhaps one of the things that have enabled whisky to find an even larger and younger audience outside of the usual confines of the aficionados.

What began with chocolate (Rich Cacao) went on to explore other worlds beyond whisky: coffee (Intense Arabica), pastoral landscapes (Amber Meadow), oak (Vibrant Oak) and tea (Phoenix Honey Orchid Tea), each release finding a different way to frame The Macallan through a nature-themed lens and through work with an outside cultural collaborator.

And now, The Macallan has announced its latest and final instalment to The Harmony Collection which is built around the theme of coconuts.

Whisky Maker Kirsteen Campbell explained that the coconut influence was guided by cask selection and maturation, made with sherry seasoned American oak casks with ex-bourbon casks specially selected for high levels of oak lactones. There is also some virgin American oak in the recipe as well, and reportedly there is no European oak.

This comes with the highest ABV of the entire Harmony Collection range at 46.3% ABV. Apparently the 0.3% was specially calibrated as a nod to the three germination pores on every coconut shell.

The packaging comes in stark black, incorporating discarded coconut fibre that naturally turns black. The pink font is a reference to the natural colour of coconut water as it oxidises.

This was launched with a lower ABV travel retail twin, Toasted Coconut.

One of the bespoke cocktail serves created as part of the launch at The Macallan Estate: Pink Colada.

As the final release in The Harmony Collection, this expression returns the series to its roots at The Macallan Estate. The release is paired with the TimeSpirit Dining Experience - a collaboration with the renowned Spanish pastry chef Jordi Roca of El Celler de Can Roca, featuring custom serves and sweet creations.

TimeSpirit is Jordi Roca's first dining concept outside of Spain, building on a partnership spanning over a decade with The Macallan.

A series of six bespoke cocktail serves have been created to complement the whiskies, each designed to highlight and interpret the coconut character in different ways.

TimeSpirit is a 24-seater dining concept located right in The Macallan Estate by the River Spey (Source: Robert Rieger)

Both bottles of The Harmony Collection 6: Inspired By Fresh Coconut and Inspired By Toasted Coconut are available now – the main release, Fresh Coconut, from The Macallan's official website and boutiques, while Toasted Coconut is exclusively available at select travel retail channels.

Let's give the main expression a taste!

Whisky Review: The Macallan Harmony Collection 6, Inspired by Fresh Coconut, 46.3% ABV

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Bright sunflower oil.

Aroma: Bright, honeyed, rather driven by golden fruits and pastry. Opening with honey, almonds, sweet marzipan, golden apples, pears, fresh apricots and a touch of fresh pandan leaves and an impression of light coconut milk jelly (a la Nonya Kueh Salat). A light cereally backbone, hints of barley husk, toasted grain with a touch of chalk and slate minerality.

Taste: Very sprightly and light-footed. It’s crisp, vanillic with a lighter bodied texture uncommon in a classic sherried Macallan - it’s clearly ex-Bourbon driven. Opening with lemon citrus peels, golden apples, just-ripe mango, jasmine florals and a touch of almond cream. Then a bit more baking spices and pastry with cinnamon and nutmeg, icing sugar on light puffed pastry with vanilla soft serve.

Finish: Medium in length. Honeyed, jasmine, ripe cantaloupes, cream on strudel, with a continued backbone of spice, lemon peels, candied ginger. Light toasted coconut flakes. Stone dust.

My Thoughts

This is the brightest, most golden fruit-driven Macallan I’ve come across. The profile shifts conspicuously from dried fruit notes to fresh citrus, vanilla, golden fruits (orchard fruits and light mango) and light pastry notes. Spices are present but they’re paired mostly with creaminess and appear to derive mostly from a lighter American ex-bourbon oak influence rather than the heavier, darker sherry oak influence.

I’m also guessing from this very clean spiced character there might be a bit of virgin American oak as well. An interestingly light-footed Macallan to be sure!

@CharsiuCharlie