The Making of The Dalmore Portfolio Series 2025 - The Tartan Code

The Portfolio Series 2025 marks the second release of The Dalmore Portfolio Series, an annual three-part collection of Highland Single Malt Scotch whiskies finessed in hand-selected Bordeaux casks from some of the region’s most revered Chateaux vineyards.

The Portfolio Series is a limited edition collection of red wine cask finished whiskies expertly curated by The Dalmore’s Master Whisky Makers, and each year, thoughtfully interpreted by a chosen creative in collaboration with V&A Dundee. Drawing inspiration from the flavours, processes and stories of The Dalmore distillery, each artist applies unique design techniques to create specially commissioned works of art for the packaging.

This year, for The Portfolio Series 2025, we have partnered with graphic artist Gabriella Marcella, Founder and Director of RISOTTO, Scotland’s leading risograph print and design studio.

The time Gabriella spent at the Dalmore distillery in the Highlands of Scotland proved a pivotal moment for shaping the evolution of her designs. Immersed in the heart of The Dalmore’s whisky making artistry, she observed elements such as motion, process and time.

The whisky itself played a significant role in influencing Gabriella’s designs, particularly its layered, sensory notes, and the warmth of its natural hues.

Gabriella’s secondary source of inspiration was grounded in The Dalmore’s heritage, specifically the tartan of the Mackenzies, the clan of our distillery’s founders. Woven using traditional Scottish techniques, tartan is made from interlaced warp and weft threads, forming the distinctive crisscrossed pattern often associated with clans – ancestral groups bound by shared kinship or heritage.

Throughout their near 100 years of ownership, the Mackenzies championed an unbroken chain of knowledge and expertise through the subsequent overlapping generations of whisky makers, enabling today’s Master Whisky Makers to continue to drive the tradition of The Dalmore whisky-making forward.

Within the tartan she studied the intricate patterns and thread counts and took inspiration from the inherent precision of ancient weaving practices.

“My approach was to honour the Mackenzie tartan’s heritage while reimagining it in ways that felt contemporary and in alignment with The Dalmore’s innovative spirit,” she says. “I introduced unexpected colours – such as pinks and peaches – with the aim of challenging conventions”.

The thread count of the Mackenzie tartan provided Gabriella with a formulaic basis from which to abstract and reconstruct its visual language.

The resulting designs for the artwork were grounded in the structure of the tartan’s sett, reimagined through colour-coded bars at varying degrees of scale, angle and fragmentation - each design conveying a sense of energy and motion.

Gabriella’s designs symbolise the whisky’s distillation journey from raw ingredients to a final finished product. The grid and cloth-inspired works capture this transformation, celebrating the unseen details and expertise behind every bottle.

Speaking to the partnership, Barry Ferguson, Director of Philanthropy and Partnerships had this to say "V&A Dundee has had the privilege of working with The Dalmore and Gabriella over many years and it’s a joy to see these two fantastic creative forces come together for the 2025 The Dalmore Portfolio Series. Gabriella’s design helps bring exquisite whisky together with a colourful contemporary take on tartan – two of Scotland’s greatest exports!"

Our Master Whisky Makers put aside three limited parcels of exquisite Bordeaux red wine cask-finished whiskies to be released annually with every collection, each a true masterpiece of Single Malt. In complement, the artists’ work reveals how the same trio of whiskies can be viewed through a new creative perspective every time - in a celebration of artistic interpretation.

The Portfolio Series comprises: No.1, a Bordeaux Wine Cask Finish with notes of rich vanilla, citrus and ripe fruit; No.2, the Châteauneuf-du-Pape Wine Cask Finish, with notes of crushed almonds, sweet sultanas and fresh ginger, and No.3, the pinnacle of the collection, the Select Bordeaux Cabernet Sauvignon Cask Finish, with notes of blackcurrant, baked apples and warm, dark cocoa. All are natural in colour and non-chill filtered.

The Portfolio Series 2025 is available in limited quantity to purchase from 1st September 2025 at Changi Airport, Singapore, ahead of the worldwide release on 1st October 2025.

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