Former race-car driver and native Scot Dario Franchitti has turned curator, selecting the items for The Balvenie 2nd Annual Rare Craft Collection, a traveling gallery that stopped in Chicago Sept. 30-Oct. 1 at Gallery 1028.
People took in the exhibition itemswhich included a handmade coffee table built with gears of a race car, specially crafted bagpipes, boots and a saddle and other itemswhile sipping the single-malt Scotch whiskey The Balvenie. ( There was also a very popular ping-pong table among the exhibits, but Franchitti said that item was not among those he selected. ) There were also special master classes with Jonathon Wingo, The Balvenie brand ambassador, who proved to be an entertaining instructor.
Talking with Windy City Times, Franchitti talked about how he became a curator: "I've known the guys for a while, and we became friends. They asked if I wanted to curate and I said, 'Yes.' So I went to the distillery in Dufftown, and a bunch of us sat down and decided all the exhibit [items] we wanted to show." When asked if he remembered the first time he had scotch, Franchitti couldn't but did remember the first bottle he bought: "I still have it, actually. I raced, and I came back through Hong Kong and I bought a bottle of whiskey with some of the prize money. That was 20 years agoand I had some of it the other night."
The exhibition is also scheduled to hit Washington, D.C., and New York City before winding up in Aspen, Colorado, on Dec. 5-7.
Andrew Davis