Last month, his sons completed a cycle and row to every whisky distillery in Scotland.
Now, it’s the turn of their famous father, legendary whisky expert and writer Charles Maclean MBE, to bring his skills to the table to raise funds for their new charity to bring clean water to some of the world's poorest countries.
Not to be outdone by the World Record-breaking trio, the author has rallied the Scotch whisky industry to donate a collection of “very rare and highly collectable” spirits for auction.
The “outstanding” auction’s 39 lots include a unique one-of-one Port Ellen from 1979, a 35-year-old bottle of Port Ellen, which is part of the Douglas Laing Old & Rare selection and a 36-year-old Glengoyne from the Russell Family cask.
Also available will be one of only six bottles in existence of Karuizawa Omoiyari, a single malt Japanese whisky and the first bottle of 278 from the Chichibu Distillery’s thousandth cask.
Charles Maclean MBE, who starred as Rory Macallister in Ken Loach’s award-winning film ‘The Angels’ Share’ said: “All the items have interesting stories.
READ MORE: Sarah Campbell: Exploring the new world of whisky and shedding the old
"Some are very rare and highly collectable, although some lots are easily affordable – appealing to consumers as well as collectors and investors. The provenance of every item is flawless.
“The auction is unusual in many respects. Assisted by other trustees, who have or had long involvement with the Scotch whisky industry, we approached a number of friends and colleagues, and they have been hugely generous.
“The funds raised from this outstanding and unique auction will allow the charity to get off the ground and to start having an impact through the provision of clean water.”
The fundraising target for the auction is £60,000. The charity had hoped for 35 lots in total – one for each day it took the Maclean brothers to row across the Atlantic in 2020 – but thanks to the generosity of its supporters, 39 are available.
A couple of weeks ago, Edinburgh-born brothers Ewan, Lachlan and Jamie Maclean completed a human-powered journey between 121 Scottish distilleries to introduce the new charity to the whisky industry.
Between them, they travelled 2,200 miles by bike and 160 nautical miles across some of the most challenging bodies of water in the British Isles.
READ MORE: Anonymous buyer of world's biggest whisky bottle revealed
In 2020, the siblings made history becoming the fastest and youngest trio to row across the Atlantic Ocean.
During their 35 days at sea, as their charity fundraising efforts ramped up to more than £205,000, the brothers began to talk about their aspiration to build a family foundation.
The auction is being hosted, free of charge, by Whisky.Auction, a London-based auction website that offers the finest whiskies, spirits and wines from all around the world.
Isabel Graham-Yool, Director of Whisky.Auction said: “This is one of the most remarkable auctions of my career.
"What is so special is that every single one of the 39 lots has particular significance, not only to whisky enthusiasts, but also to the Maclean family and their generous friends who donated such rare and exceptional bottles from their own private collections.
"We expect there to be a huge amount of interest in this charity auction.”
Also available will be an outstanding library of 40, primarily first edition, whisky books donated from the personal libraries of 15 of the world’s leading whisky writers, including Gavin Smith, Ian Buxton, Alice Lascelles, Nicholas Morgan, Dave Wondrich, Ingvar Ronde and Charles Maclean.
To support the auction, visit whisky.auction
Visit themacleanfoundation.org or follow @themacleanfoundation on Instagram to find out more.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here