The Macallan Horizon with Bentley Motors – Celebrating the Unveiling of the Macallan Horizon

The Macallan like to shock and exceed expectations. This 12 months, The Macallan have fun 200 years since acquiring their authorized licence when their first whisky was produced in 1824. To have fun, The Macallan with Bentley Motors have launched a hedonistic and splendid single malt whisky with an unique twist.

At The Macallan, nothing occurs by probability; every thing is completed with function. The Macallan was searching for a automotive firm to ally with and elevate their model and initially approached Bentley Motors. A strategic partnership between the 2 iconic manufacturers was established.

It’s an hour’s drive from Aberdeen airport to the globally accredited Macallan Property in Speyside. The drive took me by means of the distinct Aberdeenshire countryside over rolling hills and thru the spectacular entrance gate, the place we continued alongside the winding driveway in fashion, to The Macallan distillery and spectacular guests expertise.

 Designed to resemble the rolling Scottish Highlands, the center of the constructing was impressed by a conventional Scottish broch, the oldest type of citadel, a round stone constructing with grass rising over it.

On the earth of The Macallan, the color crimson all the time denotes one thing particular. Again within the day, when sampling casks, if one thing distinctive was discovered inside, the cask was marked with crimson.

The crimson hue used on their three-car Bentley fleet signifies The Macallan’s 200-year anniversary. The fleet, comprising two hybrid Flying Spurs and a Bentayga SUV, sports activities personal quantity plates: S12 (Sherry 12), S18 (Sherry 18) and MXB (Macallan and Bentley).

On the coronary heart of the property lies Easter Elchies Home, a conventional Highland manor inbuilt 1700 by Captain John Grant. A picture of the beautiful home seems on each bottle of Macallan, and when the Flying Spur’s door opened, a projection of the home shone onto the bottom, an applicable personalised contact.

The Whisky

I used to be right here for a cause with a twist: the revealing of the restricted version The Macallan Horizon, a easy, decadent, single-malt whisky introduced in a horizontal glass bottle with a 180-degree twist, symbolising the twisting of time and house. 

I used to be very excited, as this was solely the third tasting, and we had been a really choose group to have the chance to pattern this unique creation.

Kirsteen Campbell is the Grasp Whisky Maker at The Macallan Property. It takes 4 years to develop a Bentley from begin to end. The extent of ability that has gone into this product is completely befitting of each The Macallan and Bentley Motors.

“It has been a tremendous venture to ship collectively, and it was a tough path to designing a bottle that this trade hasn’t seen earlier than. You may think about our bottle on a whisky bar amongst different bottles: your eye will fall on our bottle. The liquid inside is so true to Bentley’s values and aligns with us. Think about what Bentley tastes like: it might be like that,” stated Kirsteen. 

There have been six iterations earlier than touchdown on the ultimate whisky, however for Kirsteen that introduced every thing collectively that’s signature to The Macallan and her interpretation of Bentley. “It was wonderful to work on and I’m simply so excited to see this come to life and totally launch, in order that we are able to speak in regards to the whisky,” she informed us.

“The factor for me about Bentley is that there’s fashion and magnificence and a sure boldness to the design and that’s what I needed to convey to the whisky as effectively: magnificence together with boldness, which is kind of a tough mixture with whisky. However I hope you agree the flavour mixture brings that, with a sweetness: crystalised ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg after which raisins, sultanas, dates, darkish chocolate lined Brazils; a beautiful edge.” 

The Bottle

Jaume Ferràs is World Artistic Director at The Macallan. “We began the idea with a very simple step: taking one cask horizontally and symbolising the twist of time and house. It’s fairly a primitive intuition, placing one thing collectively and twisting it: attempting to create this motion of pulling two issues collectively, twisting time and house and symbolising that twist in a cask. That’s why you see this design,” he stated. 

The Quantity Six

The quantity six is significant for The Macallan. Their whisky making course of takes six steps from malting to bottling. Six supplies have come collectively for The Macallan Horizon: aluminium, copper, leather-based, glass, wooden and whisky.

“The important thing supplies utilized in its creation have been upcycled or repurposed, and each is integral to The Macallan and Bentley Motors,” Ferràs knowledgeable us.

“The wooden, for instance, is recycled, and the glass is recyclable; the copper has been repurposed, together with from copper stills, whereas the aluminium is recycled, together with that recovered from the Bentley manufacturing course of. Finishing the image is carbon impartial leather-based from native Scottish suppliers, Bridge of Weir Leather-based, which will also be seen within the lately unveiled Bentley Mulliner grand tourer.”

Folks purchase The Macallan whisky as a result of it has that human contact and craftsmanship to it. It’s about element, too. For Kirsteen, visiting the Bentley manufacturing unit and seeing each ingredient of making a Bentley from begin to end impressed her to attract comparisons.

“Hand stitching, sew by sew, is very similar to our whisky making course of, cask by cask. We all know each single cask of whisky and we construct it cask by cask; we select to do it at that stage,” she stated.

It’s a heavy bottle, too, and feels as if it weighs as a lot as a Bentley!

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