Spain meets Speyside at the Roca Brothers’ new restaurant for The Macallan distillery

Walking under the green-roofed rolling humps of The Macallan’s distillery in Speyside, Scotland, is like entering an alternative reality. The vast wooden structure was designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and opened in 2018. It is where The Macallan is made, but it is also home to the whisky brand’s heart and soul as well as its stills, and it fairly takes one’s breath away, gazing across the distillery floor and out over the Moray landscape beyond. Whisky is alchemy, and this is a building where magic happens.

Inside the Roca Brothers’ new restaurant for The Macallan

Last week, that magic was conjured into another sensory dimension. As the pinnacle of the Macallan’s 200-year anniversary celebrations, the whisky brand has opened a restaurant with the Roca Brothers, called TimeSpirit. It is the Spanish siblings’ first permanent home outside Spain, where their legendary El Celler de Can Roca has frequently topped lists of the world’s most revered restaurants.

What relationship does Spain have with Scotland, you might well ask? The Roca Brothers have enjoyed a 12-year partnership with The Macallan, forged over a shared commitment to quality, heritage and innovation. Sherry is also a key ingredient. The Macallan has a long-standing relationship with the Jerez community and its sherry suppliers, whose oak casks lend The Macallan’s whiskies their distinct flavour and hues. ‘As well as sherry, there is a shared mentality and character between Scotland and Catalonia,’ explains Joan Roca. ‘The landscape might be different but there’s something deeper that unites us: a sense of time and a deep respect towards it.’ The reasoning behind the restaurant’s name – TimeSpirit – hoves into view.

The 30-seat restaurant has been designed by Danish architect David Thulstrup, who knows a thing or two about bringing transversal dining experiences to life as the designer of Noma.

For TimeSpirit, Thulstrup was tasked with creating a world within a world that made the most of the spectacular context without interrupting the RSHP architecture. No small feat, yet a challenge that Thulstrup met with relish. The great Dane’s sensitivity to mood and material has resulted in a beautiful series of spaces that feel hallowed and grounded, ethereal and robust, intimate and expansive, simultaneously.

The volumes play with transparency using smart, bronzed aluminium mesh; they appear to float within their larger host building, with the mesh not quite touching the ceiling or floor. Kvadrat-lined walls bring an acoustic calmness, while Scottish slate and oak lend the restaurant an implicit sense of place.

A cellar, clad in Spanish stone with a mirrored ceiling feels like a cathedral to the wines, sherries and whiskies at the heart of the experience. It divides the main restaurant from a smaller space for more intimate dining, housed in two womb-like, curved oak enclosures.

There is an all-pervading sense of softness to the design; an encouragement to feel present, not pretentious. ‘My goal is to heighten attention, not to distract from the experience of the food,’ Thulstrup explains. ‘This is not set design, but something real and engaging.’

Thulstrup himself loves food, and it’s clear that he is a master at bringing spaces to life that augment the human enjoyment of dining, rather than turning it into a remote, chilly performance of luxury. Even the open kitchen – a trope that can make restaurants feel unnecessarily performative – is sensitively lit and carefully arranged to encourage intimate connections between chefs and diners. Intrigue rather than melodrama is the mood here.

So far so good, and what of the food? We are honoured to be eating at the very first sitting and it is a testament to the level of professionalism that the entire event runs like clockwork. The nine-course tasting menu takes us on a journey back and forth from Spain to Scotland, interwoven with an appropriate (never overbearing) amount of whisky-inspired experiences too. Dishes vary from the simple bordering the sublime (celeriac, pear and toasted barley) to creations that bring artistry and chemistry to nature and gastronomy (phytoplankton mousse with Scottish seaweed and herbs).

The menu is balanced between these spectra. Fermented barley with caramelised yeast is far more more-ish than it might sound. Whisky-smoked oyster is a sensory adventure. Whisky-marinated beef tenderloin, chestnut, Macallan mustard and oak bark is a crowd pleaser. Slow-cooked pork, consommé and girolles is mind- and mouth-bogglingly rich and delicate. Dulce de leche with raspberry gel and milk ice cream will charm even the sourest palate. As a dining experience, TimeSpirit is every bit as magical as the alchemy taking place in the casks nearby.

TimeSpirit is located at The Macallan Estate, Easter Elchies, Aberlour AB38 9RX, themacallan.com