Macallan The Archival Series Folio 1 Single Malt Scotch Whisky 700ml

Macallan The Archival Series Folio 1 Single Malt Scotch Whisky 700ml is where the entire Archival Series story begins. Released in 2015 by The Macallan Distillery in Craigellachie, Speyside, this no-age-statement single malt Scotch whisky opened a strictly limited annual series devoted to the brand's legendary advertising archive. Presented in a book-style tin designed to stand on a shelf like the first volume of an encyclopedia, Folio 1 set the template that every later release in the run would follow. Like every volume in the series, it is bottled at 43% ABV (86 proof).

Folio 1 honours the very first advertisement of The Macallan's celebrated press campaign, which appeared in The Times on 27 March 1980, tucked onto the back page beside the crossword. Small in scale and printed in black and white, the ad relied on precise, witty prose rather than imagery. It was masterminded by creative director David Holmes and copywriter Nick Salaman of the London agency Holmes Knight Ritchie, and it opened a long-running campaign that continued into the early 1990s and helped establish The Macallan's credentials as a brand.

The Macallan conceived the Archival Series as a 24-part project mapping the distillery's journey from a remote farmstead above the River Spey to a single malt enjoyed around the world. Each Folio pairs its whisky with archive material celebrating the campaign it commemorates, stories, drawings and photographs among them, all housed in the collectible book-shaped packaging that gives the series its name, its charm and its distinctive presence on a collector's shelf.

For collectors, Folio 1 is the cornerstone of the whole endeavour. As the origin volume of a continuing encyclopedia, it is the chapter every completed set must contain, and because the series began here, it is also the volume most keenly sought by those assembling the run today. Its stature only deepens as each new Folio joins the line, making it a meaningful acquisition for devotees of The Macallan, of advertising history, and of Speyside single malt whisky alike.

• Size: 700ml
• Proof: 86 (43% ABV)
• Age: No Age Statement (NAS)
• Origin: Speyside, Scotland
• Distillery: The Macallan Distillery, Craigellachie
• Whisky Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
• Series: The Archival Series
• Edition/Year: Folio 1 - series debut, released 2015
• Presentation: Book-style collector tin with archive material