The Macallan unveils Masters Of Photography Series: Elliott Erwitt edition

If you’re both a whisky and photography enthusiast you may be familiar with The Macallan’s Masters of Photography. The series – which so far has seen collaborations with legendary photographers such as Rankin, Albert Watson and Annie Leibovitz – sees The Macallan whiskies paired and packaged with photographic prints taken by these creative geniuses, and the latest of the partnerships features the work of Elliott Erwitt.

First unveiled in October last year, the fourth edition of the award-winning Masters of Photography series sees 58 different single cask Macallan whiskies each matched with a hand-printed photograph signed by Erwitt in a special boxed set, accompanied by a book titled ‘Elliott Erwitt’s Great Scottish Adventure’ showcasing all of Erwitt’s 158 images.

These photographs were taken by Erwitt over a span of three different trips to Scotland, and covers various aspects of life in the Scottish countryside. Dog lovers will be pleased to note that their favourite canines feature strongly in the series.

“The creative excellence showcased by Masters of Photography has become synonymous with The Macallan,” shared Ken Grier (pictured above left, alongside Erwitt), Director of Malts of The Edrington Group, which owns The Macallan brand. He also revealed that the task of pairing the whiskies to each print was a difficult yet fun one, with Erwitt, The Macallan master whisky maker Bob Dalgarno and himself sorting out photographs on an empty floor while tasting whiskies.

The Macallan is making only 35 of each set, which makes it a total of 2,030 limited-edition boxed sets available for collection. But here’s the tricky bit – different markets around the world is only going to get access to certain boxed sets. In fact, only 224 of the 2,030 sets are available in Southeast Asia, featuring 7 of those 58 different whiskies, with each single cask whisky exhibiting different taste profiles, character and alcoholic strength).

And even though each set is not quite so expensive at $1,850 (at least, when you compare it to the recent US$628,000 auction price of The Macallan M Constantine), with different sets distributed around the world trying to get your hands on the full series will prove difficult even if you’re dripping with money.