By his own admission, racing F1 cars and even a snifter of booze are a bad match. So when the former world champion Jenson Button got to make his own whisky one day – Johnnie Walker was a team sponsor – he wasn’t even allowed to taste it. He had to make the whole thing by sense of smell alone. It was, as he puts it “frustrating”. But it did kick-start a love of whisky and a determination to one day make his own. 

That day came when a chance meeting with whisky expert George Koutsakis left him with a proposal: team up, matching whisky know-how with some celebrity profile – about which Jenson is abashedly self-effacing – to make a whisky. The result, called Coachbuilt, is rare for both mixing single malts with grain whiskies aged in oak casks – in the style of Japanese whiskies – and for being a blend that uses whiskies from all five of Scotland’s major producing regions. 

As the name suggest there’s a loose motoring theme too. The bottle is inspired by a vintage Maserati ‘Birdcage’ – one of Button’s favourites – and, more pertinently, Coachbuilt has signed its first licensing deal with Williams Racing. 

That was the team with which Button made his big breakthrough – he’s still one of its advisors – and it’s also the team with which Coachbuilt has also now got together to produce its first co-branded. Limited edition tipple, 3000 bottles of an 18-year-old blend, yours for £230 a pop. (Or, you know, just buy the unlimited edition Coachbuilt for around £40).

Jenson’s first love is still cars. Alongside Coachbuilt he also recently launched his own car business, Radford, which coach-builds its Type 62-2 carbon monocoque sportscar based on the much-loved Lotus Type 62. He still races, in the likes of the FIA World Endurance Championship. But his fascination with the intricacies of making good whisky are running close behind. 

“The whisky market is tricky at the moment, and crowded too, but we thought there was still room for a really cool blended whisky,” he says. “But [creating one] is such an art and one we just don’t talk about enough. It’s a seriously hard thing to do”.