MacNair's Lum Reek 21 Year
$259.99
Region:Scotland > Other
This whisky was featured on Day 15 of our 2023 KWM UBER Whisky Calendar. You can check out Evan's blog post on the whisky here.
Bottled at 48%, this 21 year old Blended Malt is composed of Islay, and Speyside whiskies (including GlenAllachie) aged in first fill ex-Bourbon, ex-Red Wine and ex-PX Sherry casks. This whisky was named the World's Best Blended Malt in the 2020 World Whiskies Awards!
About The Range
"Our multi-award-winning Lum Reek Blended Malt Scotch Whiskies combine Single Malts from Islay and Speyside – two of the most sought-after whisky regions in Scotland – marrying both peated and unpeated spirit to create perfectly balanced and satisfyingly complex malts. Taking inspiration from MacNair’s discovery of the delights of a dram beside a smoky peat fireplace, Billy Walker has drawn upon his half century’s experience in blending to develop a recipe fit for a traditional Scottish toast to long life; “Lang may yer lum reek”."
The MacNair's Story: "Ne'er happier than when exploring the globe or the spirit from the golden still, Harvey McNair was - in the parlance of his native Glasgow - a man or 'lad o'pairts': a true Victorian entrepreneur. A trader, thereby a traveller, an inventor of all sorts of mechanical contraptions, his genius lay in the blending of fine whiskies. He loved and championed the natural, unadulterated colour of whisky. "Pure gold' he said with a wink. Bon viveur and raconteur, he cut a dash about town and had a bursting social calendar. His best stories were always 'agin hisself', like how his neighbours thought him an alchemist or, indeed, how he discovered Lum Reek. But he knew a good dram when he blended it, or indeed stumbled across it. Just like our own 21st Century Whisky legend Billy Walker, who has recreated and refined the Lum Reek blend for the modern palate.
"One autumn evening in the 1860s, after a day's fishing, our man was quaffing a dram in the old stone bothy near GlenAllachie. Due to a blocked chimney (or lum) the room filled with smoke. It had "a marvellous effect on the whisky in my glass," confided McNair later to his merchant cronies. "Indeed, perfection!" Ne'er a truer word was spoken. Today's Lum Reek is the creation of our Master Blender Billy Walker, raising his hat to the top hatted Victorian. It's a heavily peated malt, marrying Islay & Speyside whiskies with rich GlenAllachie, to extend the flavour profile. Lum Reek is matured in GlenAllachie's warehouses, then bottled at 46% (and above), unchilfiltered, allowing its natural colour to shine like those golden autumns Harvey MacNair enjoyed, decked out in his waders."