“Kwiss-miss!” my three year old declares, eyes wide and glowing just as brightly as the lights to which she is heralding our communal attention.

“Yes, honey, Christmas lights. Aren’t they beautiful?”

“Yes, day are!”

A few houses pass, a business or two, and then a twinkling house followed again from the back seat with, “Kwiss-miss!”

Isn’t it funny that her glee isn’t very precise, as in “Kwiss-miss lights” or “Wook at da wanedeer!” Or maybe it is more precise than we know. Maybe she sees what we cannot. Maybe she is able to see and identify the centripetal pull of something at the center of each and every festive display along the way — almost as if to teach the ignorantly blind adults, “Yes, day are lights, Daddy, but Kwiss-mass makes dem gwow” or “I wuv da wanedeer, Momma, but don’t you see Kwiss-miss twinkwing? Don’t you see, Momma?!”

I could go on for a few more paragraphs savoring the simplicity hidden in extravagant substance of my beautiful little girl, but I really should probably accomplish what I came here to accomplish — a review of The Macallan Fine Oak 15 year old.

In one sense, the bridge here is very clear — that is, when you see a variety of Macallan bottles on a fine whisky shop shelf, you really could shout out, “Wook, Momma! Da Macawan”… Eh-hem, I mean, “Look, Jennifer, The Macallan!” The theologizing in my daughter’s Christmas vision certainly does cross over in the sense that there is a centripetal force at work in The Macallan distillery. You may be savoring any one bottle from The Macallan and know its source of goodness. The different varieties and ages merely chisel away edges in order to display precise facets of a character that is already glowing brightly from within by something distinguished, something distinct.

This 15 year old Fine Oak edition is no exception. It is distinctly “The Macallan” and it is a fine whisky.

The nose is cooler than it is warm, and yet in its breeze is the gentle indication of honeyed fruit. The palate delivers a bit of the Christmas spice you would expect from The Macallan while at the same time presenting itself as an unusual but not unwelcomed Macallan whisky gift-wrapped in subtle oakiness with gentle touches of something sugary. The finish is medium in that it stays just long enough to let you identify the spice and the honeyed fruits you remember in the nosing. And finally, all three of these festive moments combine and the one so blessed to enjoy a dram of this edition is hard-pressed to contain an ever-building joyful shout of “Kwiss-miss!”

Now, dear friends, you have at least one ideal answer when your mind is wondering just what to get that special whisky-drinking someone for Christmas.