Scotch Meets Island Time in The Glenlivet’s New Travel-Inspired Series

The Glenlivet, one of Scotland’s most recognized single malt producers, recently launched a new series of whiskies inspired by travels far beyond the distillery’s Speyside roots. Titled Beyond Speyside, the collection sets out to explore the intersection of place, flavor, and culture. The first release is focused on a rum-loving nation that, from what I’ve seen on my own visits, seems to love Scotch nearly as much: Jamaica.

The inaugural release, The Glenlivet 12 Year Old Jamaica Edition, is a 12-year-old whisky that spends time in casks that previously held Jamaican rum before being bottled. According to Glenlivet, this release is less about novelty and more about reflecting a different lens on Scotch through the prism of another place. The choice of Jamaica, and specifically Treasure Beach on the island’s south coast, was deliberate.

The Beyond Speyside series is a chance to explore new terroir-inspired cask finishes, The Glenlivet brand director Maritza Noriega says over email, but also “to enrich our whisky and our drinkers lives by exploring new cultures.”

Jamaica was a starting point in part because of the “experience to be discovered when you step off the beaten path,” Noriega continues. “The Glenlivet Jamaica Edition is specifically inspired by Treasure Beach on Jamaica’s enchanting south coast. As travelers seek to push the boundaries of their experience beyond the typical travel guides and take an intentional detour, places like Treasure Beach are gaining visibility.”

To reflect that travel-first ethos in more than just the rum cask finish, The Glenlivet collaborated with Jamaican-Scottish designer Nicholas Daley, who styled the launch campaign with garments that merge tartan and reggae-era silhouettes. Actor Thomas Doherty appears in the campaign, matched with former Miss Universe Jamaica Miqueal-Symone Williams as they sidestep tourist clichés and instead play dominoes and go to a beach party.

“Scottish heart meets Jamaican soul,” as the campaign video puts it.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Miqueal-Symone Williams (@miquealsymone)

The whisky itself keeps The Glenlivet’s easy drinking nature and folds in tropical notes from its rum-cask secondary maturation that brighten the whisky.

This is the first in a recurring series. Future editions will draw on other destinations, but Noriega emphasizes that it won’t be about postcard imagery. “The goal isn’t to chase vacation visuals, but to capture the mindset of exploration,” Noriega says. “We want to inspire people to try something new, taste something unexpected, and see the world through a different lens.”

More like thisTravelThis Bottle Comes With an AI Pig That’ll Teach You About France’s Most Overlooked Brandy Region