Land Rover's Special Islay Edition V8 Comes With Its Own Whisky, the '639' Scotch

The famous British carmaker got its most renowned nameplate thanks to a Scott by the name of Ian Duncan, who phrased the two words together, and the rest is history. Almost, because there are consequences that mark the present day.

The car that was involuntarily christened in 1947 was a test-drive prototype hurdled through hell and high water by Spencer Wilks, a co-founder of Rover. The naming ceremony occurred on the island of Islay in the Scottish Hebrides archipelago, so there's the Highland connection with the famous off-roader.

Land Rover announced a unique Edition Classic Works V8 to pay homage to that particular prototype and the history it unfurled. But there's more to the story than just the car. Wilks' granddaughter, Kathy Wills, and her husband, Anthony, established a Scotch distillery in 2005. It's called Kilchoman Distillery, and its first sill began production on the same Islay Island.

To commemorate the magnificent machine from three-quarters of a century ago, the alcohol company is launching a special edition of its beverage. Six hundred thirty-nine bottles will be available to the general public – and the beverage is also named '639,' by the way – and the number is not chosen at random.

Spencer Wilks' inception Rover bore the license plate GXC 639C – hence the numerical reference of today (check the gallery) – and that badging adorns the 30-limited production run of the Land Rover Classic Defender Works V8 Islay Edition. Each car will have its bottle of '639' – and a price tag going from £230,000 for the 90 and £245,000 for the 110 variant ($287,000 and $306,000).

Also, each vehicle will feature a removable wooden tray made of Scotch aging barrels from the Kilchoman Distillery. Each tray features a bespoke 110 mm (four-inch) wooden disc made to look like the end of a whisky cask. The wood itself displays the original stenciled lettering on the individual barrel from which it was sourced.

The disc is surrounded by hand-carved American walnut veneer that showcases the distillery in the same stenciled font and features Land Rover's official 75th-anniversary branding. Additionally, each cup holder base is wooden – with the oaken whisky cask as the raw material source.

For the limited Land Rover homage-paying '639' spirit, Kathy and Anthony Wills personally picked the aging containers – they preferred bourbon barrels and sherry casks. The result is – well, since the internet can't (yet) accurately replicate olfactory sensations, let's try aroma-less words: "a whisky with an abundance of rich flavors and complexity, reflecting the depth of Land Rover's connection to Islay."

Kilchoman is an award-winning, family-run farm distillery based in Islay, and it claims to be the only enterprise that crafts Islay whisky from barley to bottle on the same farm. In 2005, when it was established, the sill was the first new distillery built on Islay since 1881.

Anthony and Kathy Wills work alongside their sons – Peter, George, and James – to keep the ancient and nearly-lost traditions of farm distilling alive. Their single malt, single farm Islay whisky range is made solely from barley grown, malted, distilled, matured, and bottled on the 2,300-acre farm on the rugged west coast of Islay.

An average of 250 tons of barley is the annual yield on the farm, and the crops are sown in spring and harvested in September. The first month of fall gives the signal to begin making the whisky. The main ingredient – the barley – is malted, distilled, matured, and bottled at the distillery.

Eventually, after a natural proofing in the oak casks, the beverage reaches its 58.5% grade. The aging in bourbon and port casks releases a punchy mix of red berries, spices, and fresh vanilla sweetness, all infused with sea peat smoke. The wooden barrels also render the amber color to the Scotch, and the non-chill filtering process preserves the aromas and flavors of the exclusive whisky.

Kilchoman claims to be one of only a few surviving distilleries that undertake the intricate task of traditional floor malting of the barley. Because it's a laborious process, most other Scottish distilleries have outsourced this stage of whisky-making to commercial maltsters.