Jenson Button can still recall the frustration. Back in 2009, the year in which he was crowned Formula One World Champion with Ross Brawn’s Team Brawn, the Somerset-born racing driver was invited to make a whisky with one of his team’s sponsors – premium Scotch specialist, Johnnie Walker. However, as he was still racing at the time – Button would retire from Formula One in 2016, with 15 race wins and 50 podium finishes to his name – he steered clear (pun intended) of tasting his creation (although not contractually obliged, drivers these days tend to go teetotal during race season).

“I had to do it all by sense of smell,” says the 44-year-old. “Which was, shall we say, interesting. But it encouraged my interest in whisky, especially in the blending process. There’s all this talk about how it ‘has to be’ single malt. But why? Blending, as I discovered, is where all the creativity lies.”

It would be some years later, during the Covid-19 pandemic, that Button was invited to put his nose, and name, to another whisky. A chance meeting with George Koutsakis, a whisky consultant to leading auction houses, came with a proposition. Koutsakis wanted to create a Scotch in the Japanese style – made by mixing single malts with grain whiskies aged in oak casks. If Japanese blends historically tend to be made entirely by one producer, with all the malt and grain distilled in-house, Koutsakis wanted to blend from all five of Scotland’s whisky producing regions. Would Button, who still competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship and, occasionally, as a NASCAR driver, put his name to such a venture?

“I could see why George wanted me to be involved,” says Button, who these days lives mostly in Los Angeles with his wife, the American model Brittny Ward, and their son and daughter. “To leverage my name, for what it’s worth – obviously it’s certainly not a name big enough to make for the likes of a Casamigos tequila [co-founded by George Clooney].”

The emphasis, says Button, who for a long time kept his involvement low key, had to be on making something of genuine quality. “I wanted to be involved in the tasting, to learn about the maturation process, which is unique in whisky.”

In a nod to Button’s racing background, the resulting whisky, priced at a mid-market £45 per bottle, was named Coachbuilt. Up until the 1960s, the process of coach-building was, of course, how most exclusive cars were manufactured, with one-off exteriors commissioned to fit over a pre-existing engineering platform. In 2021, Button helped revive historic British coach-builder, Radford, creating the Type 62-2, a single-shell carbon sportscar, based on the Lotus Type 62. Coachbuilt whisky, says Button, is also a nod to the way in which the new Scotch is “assembled” at independent whisky bottler, Claxton’s, by sourcing the best “parts” available from across Scotland.

“This was always going to be an interesting journey,” says the former F1 man. “To see what we could produce given the budget we had. Certainly, the whisky market is tricky at the moment, and crowded too, but we thought there was still room for a really cool blended Scotch. I genuinely think the whisky itself is amazing – and then, of course, it becomes about marketing.”

Regarding that marketing, Button is refreshingly frank. Coachbuilt’s bottle, which features a grid-like pattern said to be in homage to the Maserati ‘Birdcage’, provides essential ‘shelf appeal’. “The bottle needs to shout,” says Button, “regardless of how good the actual liquid is.”

Parlaying his connections in the racing world, Button was able to agree a licensing deal with Williams Racing, the team that provided his F1 breakthrough in 2000 (and for whom he’s now an advisor), so that Coachbuilt is the whisky provider at all Williams-related events. Indeed, there’s already been one co-branded, limited-edition Coachbuilt-Williams whisky. 3,000 bottles of the 18-year-old blend will be made, each retailing for a lofty £230.

Coachbuilt can’t, however, Button concedes, splash the cash in the way larger whisky producers can. “In motor racing, people get sponsored by brands all the time, and they then have to fall in love because they’re pumping the millions in.”

To Button, Coachbuilt’s relationship with Williams is a lot more organic. “Of course, it would be lovely to have Coachbuilt associated with motorsport, and teaming up with Williams was definitely the easiest route to take because my whole life has been in motor racing. There are a lot of partnerships we could have pursued, but this is the best one. Williams is such an iconic name, with such a rich history in motorsport.”

One place where Button is happy to take a backseat, and absorb the knowledge of others, is in the maturation process. By working with Coachbuilt’s whisky blenders, Button has developed an appreciation for Scotch as a craft. “It really is an art,” he says. “We don’t talk about it enough. What master blenders are able to achieve is quite amazing; getting it right is a seriously difficult thing to do – even when I’m given the precise measurements, I still can’t get it right!”

Are there any parallels between racing driving and whisky making? “Perhaps,” says Button. “An appreciation of the fact that you’ll have more tough days than easy ones – and it’s the tough ones that make you better at what you do.” There is also, he says, the team effort involved. “Ultimately, it’s about having the right people around you. As in motor racing, so in whisky-making, you need passionate people who believe in what they’re doing.”

Start-ups aren’t easy. Button knows that from experience. “With ventures like this,” he says, “you just have to ride it. But every time I taste our whisky, I smile: ‘C’mon,’ I think, ‘we did this!’.”

Visit coachbuiltwhisky.com

Read more: The beginner's guide to whisky