1/If The Macallan Sherry Oak 12 is your bottle, here's one for every other night: The Macallan 12 Double Cask, $137 at Dan Murphy's. To my palate it gives a Sherry Oak 12 drinker about 97% of what that bottle gives, for 81% of the price.
2/The Macallan 12 Double Cask, $137, twelve years old. American and European oak, both sherry-seasoned. On the nose, raisins, figs, hazelnuts, candied orange and some leather. The palate runs vanilla, ginger and white pepper, dark chocolate, more raisins. Warm, rich, long enough.
3/What a Sherry Oak 12 drinker gives up here is mostly some of the sherry and the dried fruit. That's it. The two sit remarkably close otherwise, which is the whole point of putting them side by side.
4/The Macallan Sherry Oak 12, $170, is still the one for its fans: that classic sherry and Christmas-cake nose, Jaffa oranges, a final hint of smoke. The 12 Double Cask is the one I'd reach for on every other night. Pour them next to each other sometime and see how near they land.
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