For an industry that places a lot of value on tradition, heritage and patience, there's a lot of movin' and shakin' going on in the world of whisky these days. While some of this is emanating from – and because of – a diverse array of innovative start-up distilleries, even the most established players are contributing. Nowhere is this clearer than Diageo's flagship visitor experience in Edinburgh, Johnnie Walker Princes Street, where old ideas that the nosing of whisky is best done with moustaches twitching over cut-crystal tumblers while sitting in leather armchairs are elbowed aside with an upwardly mobile swoosh of dynamic colour, fresh faces, new ideas and jet-set internationalism. 

The main tour on offer at JWPS is a 'Journey of Flavour' which, while dutifully telling the Johnnie Walker story and providing whisky essentials, leans in strongly on personal taste profiles and a broad spectrum of whisky drinking experiences, positively encouraged by the serving of whisky in various cocktail combinations. Cask-strength drams, devotions to single-malt purity and other time-honoured whisky rituals are glossed over. By the time you reach the building's two seductive top-floor bars, with their skyline views and impeccably glamorous clientele, even greater depths of sophistication and imaginative exploration are to be found in the house cocktail lists curated by JWPS Head Bartender Miran Chauhan.

The most recent staging post in this metamorphosis in whisky's image at the Princes Street venue is to match a flight of whisky cocktails with samples of intricately designed, Michelin-star-type food in what's billed as 'the Four Corners Pairing Experience'. Chauhan's creative cocktails, based on single malt whiskies in Diageo's portfolio from four different regions of Scotland and frequently incorporating seasonal and foraged ingredients, provide a call. As the other half of the new collaboration called STIR, chefs James and Maria Close from Raby Hunt restaurant in County Durham, one of just 20 two-Michelin-star restaurants in the UK, were invited to respond. 

If truth be told, designing food to pair with whisky can be a fraught business, particularly at the scale of a meal or tasting menu. It generally works most effectively when the food item is a single theme, be it chocolate, cheese or seafood. Beyond this, over-elaboration often flounders in the face of whisky's muscular character. 

Presented with this challenge, albeit given greater licence by the thicker playbook of cocktail mixology, the Close partnership have remained cheffy but gone for intricate minimalism, designing a series of what are essentially amuse-bouches, tiny but perfectly formed bites of flavour combos and textural contrasts that will never touch the sides of your appetite but do deliver on the tongue and, just as importantly, in the imagination. For example, an oyster comes in an aguachile 'broth' of chilli and cucumber with layers of sweet and sour, accompanied by an Amaro cocktail based around the 'seaside' notes of Clynelish whisky. After this, a twist of crisp cos lettuce around a soft sliver of quail breast in Caesar dressing forms a counterpoint to a vermouth and Caol Isla combo that's first smoky then herby. While there's no sense in which the four bites of food served constitute a meal or even add up to a hunger-addressing snack, there's still an engaging narrative whisking you around not just Scotland's distilling geography, but also an intriguing array of ingredients, techniques and global influences. Following three savoury appetisers is a show-stopping 'dessert', a thrillingly faux apple shape complete with glossy green skin/shell that contains a silky sweet, complex apple cremeaux which is served alongside rich, aromatic Cardhu mixed with a sparkling orchard wine.

The idea is that these one-mouthful wonders are not simply a pair to the cocktails, but an extension to the magical mystery tour that Chauhan has licence to explore in his mixology. If it's all a bit discombobulating, that's partly the point. If, at £48 per head for some sips and nibbles, there's also the whiff of a con trick, then it's no different to most other tasting menus or flights: a bit of an indulgence and a bit of a performance that demands the willing suspension of disbelief. Stay on board with that, and it's possible for STIR to deliver a unique, multi-faceted taste experience in a memorable location. Just as the journey to the top floor of Johnnie Walker Princes Street leaves leaves whisky-as-we-know-it at street level, STIR does the same for paired menus. Just remember to make a dinner booking somewhere nearby for later. 

The Four Corners Experience by STIR at Johnnie Walker Princes Street is available Wednesday to Saturday from 5.30—8.30pm. Booking required.