The Savile Club is one of London’s most traditional private members’ clubs. Jackets are required, ties strongly encouraged, jeans and trainers banned — Soho House, this is not.
Here, James Mackay and his circle of high-rolling whisky enthusiasts feel at home. And it’s where, among the city’s established elite, we meet to discuss his latest venture, Artisan Casks.
Mackay’s background isn’t in Scotch production, but his influence at the top of the market is hard to overstate. During nine years at Diageo, he helped create Prima & Ultima – a hyper-exclusive take on Special Releases – and Casks of Distinction, which offered an entire still-aging cask to a single buyer.
Then, late in 2024, he left. “I had done what I could do at Diageo,” Mackay said. “It was time for a fresh start, and time to apply everything I’ve learned doing that, including the relationships I’ve built with clients, to a fresh opportunity in a company which is very, very different to Diageo. It couldn’t be any more different.”
He joined the Artisanal Spirits Company, best known as the owners of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS). The society was founded on simple principles: to make single cask whisky accessible to a wider audience. Buying casks for over 40 years, the society finds itself with something of a surplus. That is where Artisan Casks comes in, which launched its inaugural collection earlier this summer. Mackay acknowledges the similarities with his former work but is quick to point out key differences.
He said: “Artisan Casks is a private cask ownership program in exactly the same way that Casks of Distinction is. It’s not about gambling on young spirit or an investment scheme. We offer fully mature casks; all picked for their quality. The minimum age is 20 years old.
“The artisan name is not an accident. Artisanal Spirits Company is very small scale. Big whisky companies assume most casks will be vatted together to make a single malt or blend at scale. The casks are filled and managed for that purpose. In our entire 40-year history, every cask has been acquired for bottling as a single cask whisky. That’s a massive difference from big companies.”
Independence is another. While Diageo’s vast inventory is limited to its own distilleries, Artisan Casks can source freely across the industry. That freedom is clear in the jewel of its debut release: a 32-year-old Macallan priced at £599,000. It is an outlier in a launch collection that otherwise includes casks from Bowmore, Highland Park, Glenrothes and Laphroaig; all priced between £50,000 and £143,000, together still costing less than the Macallan.
Most striking, though, is the transparent pricing. Mackay believes it’s a key selling point. He said: “Every cask ownership program follows the same philosophy on pricing called mark to mark. You look at the market, and you find the going rate for something comparable. A big distillery owner will match the pricing of their own official bottlings, whereas our whiskies are considered an independent bottling, so we set our benchmark against the current market value of an independent bottle. As a result, there is a significant discount.”
The proof is in the math. The Macallan cask works out at £2,400 a bottle based on its current yield of 246. That compares to an official Macallan Double Cask 30 Year Old – neither a single cask, cask strength, or anywhere near as limited – for £3,900.
“We encourage people to get involved with the whisky-making process, speak to the whisky makers and decide on the right time to bottle together.”
James Mackay
And then comes the aging potential. Artisan Casks has put no limits on the amount a buyer can age their whisky, meaning those with the patience can turn a 32-year-old Macallan into a 40-year-old Macallan at no extra cost. That’s a point of difference from Casks of Distinction, which gives buyers a maximum of five years before they must bottle it.
Mackay said: “Something I learned from listening to clients over the last nine years is that they want to be treated like grown-ups, not dictated to. We encourage people to get involved with the whisky-making process, speak to the whisky-makers and decide on the right time to bottle together.
“That’s something we can do in a company like Artisan Casks. All the casks are in one warehouse, fully controlled, and we can manage the relationships over the long term without worry.”
The value of Artisan Casks isn’t measured solely in liquid or numbers. For Mackay, it’s equally about the experience of ownership. Buyers aren’t just handed a cask; they’re invited into a circle of peers, with regular gatherings staged around the world.
“It’s not a formal club,” Mackay says. “But the ticket to entry is very clear. These people can be very private, so it’s important to have a clear point that connect them. The first time we did this kind of thing, we weren’t sure if they were going to get along, but it was the reverse. Even coming from very different backgrounds, they got along fantastically well because they all knew that they were lovers of beautiful whisky. They all desperately want to share their casks with people who appreciate it for what it is.”
That sense of whisky as social currency also shapes how Artisan Casks presents its bottles. Unlike SMWS, which obscures distillery names to emphasise flavor, Mackay insists the name sits front and center — because in a gifting or social context, provenance matters. But a name can only open the door so far. The liquid still has to live up to it.
“These casks have all been managed in a very singular way. There’s no margin for error. If the whisky-making team believe they can improve the liquid by moving it into a better cask, they will. They make annual trips to Jerez, Spain to select individual casks tailored to each whisky. That’s something you tend to find only in small, independent companies — and it’s very expensive.”
Most of the debut collection, including the headline Macallan, is secondary matured. That particular liquid spent 30 years in first-fill American oak before being moved into Spanish oak first-fill Pedro Ximénez cask. The result is a multi-layered, elegant whisky that is recognisably Macallan, though its time in a first-fill sherry cask does limit the scope for extended aging. Which raises an inevitable question: what happens if the whisky-making team believes it is ready to bottle, but the owner disagrees?
Mackay said: “From the quality point of view, the whisky-making team is fiercely proud of its reputation. Right at the beginning they told me, ‘James, we’re not going to let anyone mess up our whisky’.
“The decision on when to bottle must be mutual between the owner and the whisky team. I asked the team what happens if there’s disagreement — if the owner wants to get it to 40 years old and the whisky team says the cask is too active, the flavor will get unbalanced. In practice, they’d re-rack it into a refill, inactive cask so the quality is preserved, and it can see out the extra years of aging.”
And what’s the longer-term strategy for Artisan Casks? Perhaps a rival to Prima & Ultima, the exclusive bottle series set up by Mackay himself. “I think that will come naturally,” he said. “When clients get to know each other and start to swap bottles, they may start asking me for something very exclusive by the bottle. But I need to get the community set up first, and then we can start thinking about where to go next.”
Artisan Cask – Select Offerings
The Macallan
Age: 32 | Est ABV: 53.8% | Est yield: 246 x 70cl bottles | Price: £599,000
Elegant and approachable, this is typical of any good Macallan. The spirit is fruity and herbaceous, offering dried fruits and spices mixed with hints of dark chocolate. Very approachable at cask strength.
Mortlach
Age: 33 | Est ABV: 44.6% | Est yield: 239 x 70cl bottles | Price: £143,000
Rich on both the nose and palate, with three decades in sherry casks making themselves heard. Brown sugar and subtle oak notes combine to make pecan pie. Some fennel seed spice at the finish. This whisky feels like it’s ready to go today.
The Glenrothes
Age: 33 | Est ABV: 44.6% | Est yield: 239 x 70cl bottles | Price: £93,000
A beautiful nose and palate, both with that petrichor quality that only the Glenrothes seems to capture. That minerality sits perfectly alongside fruity notes. Very similar in both profile, complexity and quality to The Macallan.
