THE GOOD LIFE Whisky


Aberfeldy’s Single Cask 49 Year Old 1975 sits in a carafe handmade in France at La Cristallerie Royale de Saint-Louis


BOTTLE BANK


Distillers are turning to creative partners to hawk their most prized whiskies – but how will this trend age? By Chris Madigan


T


o mark its bicentenary last year, storied distillery the Macallan launched its ‘TIME:SPACE’ col- lection, which feature a two- bottle limited-edition offering


priced at around £150,000. The liquid was notable, but so too was the circular vessel it came in, which resembled a flying saucer and was itself encased in a chieſtain’s oak shield adorned with spikes, designed by Glasgow-based Irish designer and wood art- ist John Galvin. For a recent Johnnie Walker project, Bal-


main’s creative director Olivier Rousteing designed a Baccarat crystal and gold decant- er with an elaborate stopper resembling the Frenchman’s signature ‘strong shoulders’. And William Grant & Sons launched a limit- ed-edition 50-year-old Ladyburn whisky that featured abstract works by Korean contem- porary artist Ha Chong-Hyun. The set of 10 bottles was priced at £176,000. Increasingly, it seems, a bottle of whisky is


not just something to be consumed, but an ornament or objet d’art that is displayed – maybe in its own purpose-built cabinet. Perhaps the clearest distillation of this


trend comes in the form of Distillers One of One, a biennial charity auction of Scotch lots donated by major distillery groups. At this year’s auction, at Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh, on 10 October, the lots will


A decanter hand-blown by Glencairn Crystal houses Laphroaig’s Capsule 40 Year Old


A BOTTLE OF


WHISKY IS NOT JUST SOMETHING TO BE CONSUMED, BUT TO BE DISPLAYED


include a 1983 Port Ellen whisky encased in a painted-glass sculpture by German glass artist Wilfried Grootens. ‘Port Ellen Prism’ (est. £150,000-£300,000) is an extension of a project at the distillery (which reopened in 2024 aſter a 40-year closure) in which chem- ical data on whiskies is represented as swirl- ing digital artworks. Grootens has individu- ally painted 30 or more layers of glass which are laminated to create a 3D effect repre- senting the smoke of the Islay malt. One Chivas Brothers offering is Aber-


lour’s ‘The Mouth of the Chattering Burn’ (est, £20,000-£40,000), a 53-year-old single malt in a decanter that called upon the skills


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