Harrison Ford on His Glenmorangie Scotch Whisky Collaboration

Harrison Ford on His Glenmorangie Scotch Whisky Collaboration


If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.

Harrison Ford‘s first time in Scotland may have been to shoot a 2025 ad campaign with Glenmorangie, but he’s been a scotch enthusiast for a long time — a fitting drink for a man who’s played rugged characters from Indiana Jones to Han Solo and more than one U.S. president. And clearly, it didn’t take long for Ford to embrace Scottish culture: There’s Ford at Sunset Tower in Los Angeles, clad in a tartan kilt, holding a glass of his namesake Glenmorangie x Harrison Ford Limited Edition whisky. 

“Besides the fact that we were all huge fans, Harrison uniquely ticked an awful lot of boxes in many ways. We were looking for somebody who was globally recognizable because we are a global brand,” explains Caspar MacRae, Glenmorangie’s President and CEO. “So there were very few people who have that global stature in the way that Harrison does, and not just globally, but to all generations. Second thing was that we knew Harrison was very authentically passionate about single-malt scotch whisky.”

Before collaborating on the whisky, Ford shot a 12-part campaign for the brand, directed by fellow screen star Joel Edgerton. Ford plays himself as he travels to Scotland to shoot the ad, but he makes it clear from the get-go that he doesn’t want to do any action-hero, standing-on-a-mountain stuff. He just wants to sit by the fire and drink scotch. The tongue-in-cheek premise drew Ford in, as did the chance to work with Edgerton. 

“He was a hoot. I have great respect for him as an actor and as a director,” Ford says of Edgerton. “We were given liberty. And being the kind of guys we are, we kind of pushed it a bit. But I think the material has a joy and humility to it. And the people in it, the people who work in the distillery, are such interesting people. That’s really becomes what it’s about.”

The collaboration, announced on May 4 (Star Wars Day, a fortuitous coincidence, according to MacRae), started to come together after Ford arrived in Scotland. He worked with Dr. Bill Lumsden, Glenmorangie’s director of distilling, on a flavor that suited him. “It distinguishes itself amongst the Glenmorangie whiskies by having a bit more bite than some of them do. And perhaps other flavor notes that particularly appealed to my taste,” says Ford. 

“I sent samples out to him here in the United States,” says Lumsden, who worked on a prototype that had enough of the bite Ford was looking for. But Ford wanted even more. “I think he wanted to push it a little bit further. But I negotiated with him and said, ‘I want to make this appealing, not just to you, Harrison, but to people who already love Glenmorangie.’ So we reached a compromise.”

Stefanie Keenan / Getty Images for Glenmorangie

Ford is modest about the role he played in the whisky’s development: “Dr. Bill has a stellar reputation and a long history [doing this]. So there were a lot of things that I had to learn in order to even properly appreciate what I was doing. That was a very interesting part of the experience as well.”

I ask Ford which of his characters he’d most like to have a drink with, and he pauses. “I suppose I would say John Book, the character in Witness. I think he might like a nice dram. I did my research [for that character] with the head of the homicide department in Philadelphia, and we did drink scotch, occasionally in cop bars. So I know he might like it.” 

Glenmorangie Harrison Ford Limited Edition is available for $99.99 online at Reservebar and at select retailers.


www.rollingstone.com
#Harrison #Ford #Glenmorangie #Scotch #Whisky #Collaboration

Share: X · Facebook · LinkedIn

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *