MACALLAN 1967- FAMILY LIFE AND WORK
In 1918, at the end of the First World War, Janet Harbinson became managing partner at The Macallan.
Janet Harbinson was a great gift to The Macallan. Her husband, Alexander, had died before the fighting of the First World War ceased; the future rested on her shoulders. She was to run the company for the next twenty years, but she was already exerting a positive influence, supporting and protecting the wives and widows of those workers who had left for battle.
Her instincts proved unfailingly prescient. In the turbulent 1920s, with crop failures, American Prohibition and a public in large part turning away from whisky, she resolved to let the business tick over quietly.
In the label created by Sir Peter Blake for this 1967 bottling, Janet is joined by homely reminders of that interwar world. The rabbit is emblematic of the countryside she loved so much, although it would hardly have been welcomed in the vegetable garden. Her (not always reliable) Calthorpe motorcycle and the family’s Sunbeam motorcar stand proud against her home, its bleak granite brickwork arranged into a smile of a house.
The building is often described as ‘couthy, not grand’, a Scottish encapsulation of familiar and unstuffy qualities that could be applied equally to Janet Harbinson herself. Correspondence written in her steady, elegant hand relays the stories of both her work in those challenging years. Family life is also glimpsed with mentions of lunchtime walks with Wuggles, the family’s beloved dog.
Throughout her stewardship, run very much on family lines, one principle remained steadfast. She never let standards slip, nor the influence of European sherry oak be removed from the Distillery’s distinctive single malt.
Under the close guard of a chocolate Cocker Spaniel reminiscent of one owned by Janet Harbinson, the whisky in the bottle that Sir Peter has labelled, selected by Maker Sarah Burgess and in Mary McCartney’s photograph, is the product of a craft and care. One day, the rich flavour notes of fig, mango, sweet oak and hazelnut within this single malt will be savoured by a deeply fortunate individual, appreciative of all that is precious, just as Janet was.
