TimeSpirit at Macallan Review – Prix Fixe Dining With Whisky

TimeSpirit at Macallan is a Feast for the Senses

Upon arriving at the Macallan estate, we were immediately in awe. The building is built partway into the earth and has a wavy, undulating roof topped with grass. The interior of the building is even more amazing with huge, cavernous spaces, glitzy displays of expensive bottles in glass cases, spiral staircases leading to a second-floor tasting bar, and a view into the massive production area with dozens of stills.

The whole thing has an airport lounge vibe, which made sense after we learned the architect also designed London Heathrow’s Terminal 5.

We were led upstairs to the second floor, where the restaurant is located, and walked past the open-concept staging kitchen into the intimate dining area with stunning views of the rolling Speyside hills.

We had our first choice of the evening to make – whisky or wine pairings to accompany our prix fixe menu. As we always want to try everything, we were happy they had no problem with one of us choosing the whisky pairing and one of us choosing the wine pairing (partly because we love fine wine and wanted to see what their sommeliers selected, but also because two whisky pairings did feel a bit excessive). 

• Note: For the purposes of this review, we’re going to stick to talking about the whisky pairing since you are dining at the distillery. That said, if you love wine and want to do one and one like we did, we’d really recommend it- the wines were excellent and went really well with the food.

Our first beverages soon arrived – a champagne for the wine pairing, and for the whisky pairing a champagne cocktail using the 12-year Color Collection whisky and bitters. The cocktail was light and delicate with a hint of sweetness.

Soon the canapes arrived with a flashy presentation – a globe with five different markers protruding from it held little stands for five different canapes. The bites were themed to be from different locations around the world: a taco for Mexico, a mini pastrami burger for NYC, a vegetarian haggis bon-bon for Scotland, a cured piece of pork with caviar for Jerez, and a coronation chicken tart with liver pate for London. This impressive start to the meal increased our anticipation for what was to come!

The next whisky pairing was the same 12-year Color Collection whisky from the previous course’s cocktail, but this time served neat. The food pairing was a salad course of sorts with raw scallop slices, charred cabbage, lettuce, a nettle sorbet, caviar, and a tangy sea buckthorn sauce. It was one of our favorite courses with contrasting textures and flavors.

To top it off, our server mentioned many of the ingredients were grown right there on the estate!

The next course was a rather interesting concept – a celeriac dish prepared with a zero-waste approach using all parts of the celeriac. The peels were used to make a sort of dark, rich jus, and the juice from roasted celeriac was reduced to make a caramel. The heart of the dish was thin slices of pear and celeriac layered together to create tender, juicy, caramelized flavors, topped off with bright and crunchy pickled celery.

The level of sweetness coaxed out of a humble vegetable like celeriac was pretty incredible. It worked perfectly with the Aurora whisky, which brought out even more of the caramel sweetness and roasted grain notes in the dish.

We moved on to another unique dish, one that showcased the essence of single malt whisky: barley. The main component of the dish was a rich, hardy fermented barley porridge, and it was topped with light, puffed barley crackers. It was very savory, earthy, and a little bit funky. The funkiness brought out some of the sherry barrel notes in the accompanying whisky, the 1824 Whisky Maker’s Edition. The wine pairing for this course was also fun – a sherry from the producer who supplies Macallan with their sherry barrels. Full circle!

A fish course came next, a filet of meaty halibut with a white fish stock-based sauce, drizzled with a green herb sauce, and topped with thinly shaved black truffles and dollops of truffle jelly and shiso jelly. The fish was cooked to perfection and the fish stock-based sauce was rich and umami. The richness of the dish ensured that it paired well with the whisky, in this case their 1824 Select Oak.

Another fish course followed, this time a super savory lobster course. The juicy, tender lobster was bathed in a soppressata and lemongrass sauce with lime zest. The sauce was so rich and savory, but it was lifted by the lemongrass and lime – brilliant! The whisky pairing for this course was the 15-year double cask. We were also served barley sourdough with this course, and two delicious house made butters (a barley butter, and a smoked whisky butter – wow!).

For both fish courses, I really loved how they took proteins that are normally paired with lots of cream or butter and flipped the script to create more savory and umami flavors that were almost meaty. Delicious, and a smart choice for pairing with whisky!

For the first meat course, we had a beef tenderloin that came from a local farm. It was served with a whisky barrel-aged mustard, a hollandaise, a sherry gel, and beef jus. The meat itself was incredibly tender, and the sauces were perfect, especially the pungent mustard. The whisky, the 2024 Rare Cask, sang perfectly with the beef. Along with the beef we were also served brioche made with some of the beef fat instead of the traditional butter. The bread was so rich and meaty, but still light and airy in texture.

A pork loin course followed; the pork was topped with a thick and rich consomme and little orange segments for some brightness and acidity. It was good, but even better was the accompanying spin on a xuixo, a sweet Catalan pastry made with a laminated dough and filled with custard. This take on a xuixo was a savory version, stuffed with rich, meaty, shredded pork. It was delicious, especially with the Lithia whisky pairing.

We finally made our way into the dessert courses – first up, a creamy ice cream topped with raspberry and crispy white chocolate, topped with whispy cotton candy. I am not a fan of cotton candy and thought the dish didn’t really need it, as the ice cream was delicious in its own right and the tanginess of the raspberry was a perfect contrast. The whisky pairing was the Classic Cut Cask Strength.

Finally, we had a delightful little orange sponge cake topped with a custard ice cream, whipped cream, and a caramel drizzle. The cake was rich but with bright citrus notes, and the creaminess of the toppings was a great accompaniment. The final whisky was a showstopper, a special bottle that is apparently hard to come by and also extremely expensive: Art is the Flower. Personally, it was not our favorite whisky of the evening, but we did appreciate that such an exclusive whisky was part of the pairings.

For the last few bites, we were given several petits fours: a house-made marshmallow with rhubarb topping, a take on a cranachan (a frozen yogurt ball coated in oats and topped with a cranberry sauce), and a light and floral pear pate de fruits.

Overall, we were very impressed with the food here, and it was one of our most memorable meals in all of Scotland. The service was good, especially the attention to my tree nut allergy. There were a few service points that weren’t exactly perfect, like the pacing of a few of the courses seemed drawn out, but they were pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.

The creativity was on full display with unique combinations of flavors and textures, and ingredients being utilized in inventive ways. We also thought the meal was an excellent value considering the quality (£99 each on our visit in 2025, plus £95 for the whisky pairing and £75 for the wine pairing), and the per-dram price of the whisky was reasonable given Macallan’s general super premium price point for bottles.

It’s clear that TimeSpirit is positioning itself for a Michelin star (or two), and we can’t wait to see how this one grows and evolves. But we do anticipate one thing- don’t expect the price to be that low forever. Once word gets out and demand rises, this meal’s price will likely go the way of all of Macallan’s whisky- through the roof.

To finish this one, we want to talk about shopping at Macallan more, as you may be left with the same question we had- can you buy your favorite whisky after the meal?

A Final Note About Shopping After Dinner

Finally, if you’re like us, you probably are wondering if you can shop at the Macallan store while visiting for dinner. The answer is yes- but with some caveats.

As noted at the start of this review, we had not made a reservation to visit Macallan outside of our dinner, so we were quite curious if we’d have the opportunity to buy any bottles we sampled without having to return the next day.

We asked our hostess about this when we arrived and were told that, yes, we are more than welcome to walk around the museum-caliber displays and store at any point during our dinner (just tell your server to let the chefs know in advance to plan for a break, which they gladly accommodated). But we were cautioned to go early as the Macallan store legally has to stop selling bottles at 10 pm- although the bar stayed open later.

This, of course, was worrisome as our 8 pm dinner reservation went until well after 10:30 pm, with some of our favorite whisky being served well after the store closed for the night. Still, we did take a break to walk around and explore the museum and store earlier in the meal, and the staff kindly offered to make a reservation for us to return the next day if we needed.

Thankfully, one walk around the store showed that this wouldn’t be necessary- every bottle of Macallan I would’ve wanted was priced about 3-5x more than what we thought they were worth (if they were available at the store at all). Truthfully, while Macallan whisky is quite good, and some we tried in our flight were among the very best we had in Scotland, it really does feel like you’re paying for the name with such a bloated markup compared to bottles we sampled from other producers- so we declined returning the next day.

That £800 bottle we loved will be left for someone else who could stomach the bill- we just couldn’t fathom paying more than £200 at best, and that’s being generous. (We only bought one bottle that expensive on our entire trip!)

Setting our own thoughts on price aside, just keep in mind that if you want to shop at Macallan during your dinner, you only have limited time to do so before the store closes mid-meal. So, worst case, plan to have a bit of time in the following days to return if shopping is high on your list. We were leaving Speyside the following morning, which could’ve presented an issue if we wanted to shop, but we didn’t have to worry about it. So keep that in mind!

All-in-all, we had an excellent time at Macallan for TimeSpirit, and really loved how they took prix fixe dining to a unique level with a stellar whisky pairing to go along with it. Although the bottles here are too far out of our budget, we were happy to enjoy this excellent meal at a reasonable price point for what all we got. 

We can’t wait to see what they do next!

TimeSpirits is the prix fixe dinner experience at the Macallan distillery in Aberlour, Scotland..

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