Legendary Scots car designer Ian Callum has moved into the whisky industry with an exclusive single malt bottle.
The Dumfries-born design guru who turned round the fortunes of Jaguar is releasing Callum 529 in partnership with distillery Annandale.
Produced by Annandale Distillery in Dumfriesshire, just 230 bottles of the limited edition single malt will be released – priced at £350 each.
Each one comes in a bespoke bottle designed and signed by Ian.
The whisky is a collaboration between Ian and his childhood school friend David Thomson, who co-founded Annandale Distillery.
“We spent six years in many of the same classes together,” Ian, 67, says. “We connected at a Jaguar event many, many years later. He said he was impressed by what I’d gone on to do and I was impressed by what he’d achieved. He asked if I’d like to design a bottle of whisky and I said yes.”
Design expert
Born in Dumfries, as a teenager Ian Callum wrote to Jaguar’s chief engineer Bill Heynes – the man who designed the iconic E-Type. Fast forward a few decades and Ian finally landed the job he coveted as a young man.
Ian designed the E-Type’s successor, the F-Type, as well as Jaguar’s first fully electric model, the I-Pace – a car that was one of the first displays at V&A Dundee.
He left Jaguar in 2019 after 20 years with the company. Since then he set up his own design agency, Callum and has designed everything from a special edition Aston Martin Vanquish to a mobility scooter, a campervan, hi-fi equipment and a lounge chair.
“A lot of my projects are low volume and not many of them are going to make me lots of money but I’m in the fortunate position of being able to pick projects that excite me,” he explains.
Tasting notes
Of course designing a whisky bottle had to involve a certain amount of tasting. “David helped me develop an appreciation for the drink,” Ian says. “Our whisky is very smooth. It’s unpeated and has been matured in a bourbon cask.”
When it came to the design process, Ian prefers the old fashioned way. “You can use a computer and for a bottle that might be preferable because you can rotate it. I like pen and paper though, so it began with sitting down and doing a few sketches. There was a lot of trial and error before we found the right design.
“I decided to use ceramic because I wanted a solid colour. And the ripples are there to reflect the fluid inside.”
The unpeated whisky has sweet, creamy vanilla and caramel hints, supported by oak and malt undertones. It will be bottled at cask strength, meaning around 50-65% ABV.
The 230 bottles will be released in August and each will be hand numbered and signed by Ian Callum.
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