'Macbeth Act II' whisky series newly released

Friday 14th March 2025


The second phase of characters which Quentin illustrated from Shakespeare's play 'Macbeth', for a collection of Scotch whisky, have been released this week.

In a project spanning several years, Quentin created drawings of characters from 'The Scottish Play', one character for each of the 42 bottles planned for the series.  Major characters, or 'leads', such as Macbeth and King Duncan, are featured alongside the nobility - Macduff, Angus and so on - and the Household characters - the comedic Porter, 'a Gentlewoman' and others.  Ghosts, Weird Sisters and Murderers all also take a turn in the spotlight. Quentin has  transmuted Shakespeare's characters into crow-like birds, created using bold black ink lines and a scratchy quill and tinted with single, themed colours of watercolour wash, reflecting the dark tone of the original play.  Act I of the set, comprising nine characters, was released in March 2023.

'Act II' sees  eight new characters being released, each with a distinctive whisky giving a nod to their attributes.  Macduff, for exmaple, is paired with a  Bunnahabhain 45 Years Old, distilled in 1975.  Accompanying notes describe this as 'A huge, beautiful whisky to stand up to the dark forces surrounding it. '  The new release also features whiskies for Lennox, Ross, Young Siward, Second Witch, Second Murderer, Soldier and a Servant.

The Macbeth series was created by independent bottler Elixir Distillers and whisky company Livingstone. Whisky writer Dave Broom matched different characters from the play to individual malts. 

More information, for those of legal drinking age only, is at: https://livingstonerare.com/