Did You Know That an Old The Macallan Whisky from 1878 Wasn't That Old After All?

Tuesday, 16 September 2025 at 15:02Scotch Whisky

Imagine walking into a whisky bar and being offered a chance to sample a whisky from the 19th century. It sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? In 2017, an enthusiast shelled out 10,000 dollars for a glass of The Macallan 1878 only to be the bitter discovery of a counterfeit.

FAQ

What happened with this The Macallan bottle?
A Chinese whisky enthusiast spotted a rare The Macallan and wanted to buy it. He almost did, but then someone noticed it was a fake.
Where did he spot the rare Macallan whisky?
In a bar in the Swiss Hotel Waldhaus am See.
How old was The Macallan whisky?
It was 27 years old, according to the label.

At the Devil’s Place Bar in the Swiss Hotel Waldhaus am See, a Chinese whisky enthusiast in 2017 came across an intriguing bottle by the bar. It was an astonishingly aged bottle of The Macallan from 1878. This was said to be a ‘rare Speyside malt whisky’ which had been matured for 27 years.

A pour from the bottle of The Macallan was attainable, although it would require a payment of 9,999 Swiss Francs, which roughly equates to slightly more than 10,000 euros. Intrigued by the 19th-century whisky, the man decided to sample the dram.

Unbelievable labels

Whisky enthusiasts and collectors got wind of the bottle and critically scrutinized its condition. They raised concerns that this might very well be a fraudulent Macallan 1878. The cork and the label appeared far too pristine and contained dubious elements.

The label proclaimed that the bottle had been filled by Roderick Kemp, but he was not the proprietor of the Scottish distillery in 1878. Additionally, there’s no such entity as ‘Macallan and Talisker Distilleries Ltd’, which was nonetheless printed on the label.

What was truly in the bottle of The Macallan?

A test was necessary to ascertain what the Chinese man had actually tasted. The hotel sent the bottle to the University of Oxford for examination. It wasn't long before everyone's fear was confirmed: the Macallan bottle was far from authentic.

The bottle of The Macallan 1878 did indeed hold an old whisky, but it was a blend of 60 percent malt whisky and 40 percent grain whisky. Whether the spirit originated from 1878 remains unclear.

Was the man outraged?

After this revelation, the hotel immediately approached the buyer of the dram. In the end, he was refunded. The Chinese man wasn't angry at all, as it gave him a great story to share.

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