The Macallan was founded in 1824 by Alexander Reid on the Easter Elchies estate above the River Spey, one of the first distilleries to be licensed after that year's Excise Act. Roderick Kemp bought the estate in 1892 and it stayed under his family's control for over a century. In 1994 Highland Distillers took ownership, and Edrington, which had held a stake in Highland Distillers, became sole owner of the Macallan brand in 1999.
Macallan is known for using a high proportion of sherry-seasoned oak casks, mostly from Spain, and for the small stills it has historically used, which the brand says concentrate flavour. A large, architecturally distinctive new distillery and visitor centre was built into the hillside at the estate and opened in 2018, alongside the original Victorian buildings, which remain in use.