Glenturret unveils Lalique decanter

Scotland’s oldest working distillery, The Glenturret, has launched Eight Decades – a limited edition decanter created in collaboration with Lalique and renowned American artist James Turrell.

Eight Decades is limited to 80 decanters worldwide, and has been created as a celebration of the artist’s 80th birthday.

John Laurie, managing director, The Glenturret, said: “It is a proud moment for us to be working with James Turrell – a lot of hard work and emotions have gone into designing and creating this decanter.

“The Eight Decades decanter encapsulates The Glenturret’s very essence: an understated aesthetic, crafted by many talented hands who are all custodians of the skills required to create such a beautiful decanter and liquid.

“The design of Eight Decades is a departure from more traditional whisky bottles and a homage to the artist as it commemorates his 80th birthday – we feel it is a piece of art just as much as it is a whisky decanter holding a delicious liquid.”

The creation of Eight Decades is said to have required an immense amount of design work, from drawings to mould manufacturing, hot glass trials, and prototypes.

The shape and colour of the bottle, which has a neck injected with violet crystal, offers a pared-down silhouette, with flowing curves combined with tapered lines and a rectangular base.

The pyramid shape of the deep blue crystal stopper is inspired by Egypt and its monuments in which light served ceremonial purposes.

Inside, the single malt whisky has been selected by The Glenturret whisky maker Bob Dalgarno using insight from his conversations with Turrell.

It has been drawn from eight casks, ranging from those filled in 1987 through to 1998, each chosen to represent a different facet of the eight decades of Turrell’s life, his character, and vocation.

The resulting whisky is Dalgarno’s interpretation of ‘art in a liquid form’.

It is described as offering aromas of dark dried fruit, chocolate orange, ginger cake, red berries, fresh apples, and softer oak. On the palate, it is said to present gentle wood spices, rich fruit cake laced with treacle and honeycomb, balanced with burnished oak that provides a long, mellow finish.

Turrell said: “I love a single malt whisky. I described the whisky my father enjoyed as inspiration for the team at The Glenturret: my father’s description of civilisation was a fine whisky and a good cigar. There is also the idea to relate the decanter to the work in crystal I have previously completed with Lalique.”

Eight Decades is priced at £80,000 (US$99,236) and will be primarily available for pre-orders in May through privateclient@theglenturret.com, or by contacting Lalique Boutiques on Conduit Street and in Burlington Arcade, London.

At the end of last year, The Glenturret released the second single malt whisky in its Trinity Series in Lalique: The Glenturret Prowess.

The Glenturret became part of Lalique Group in 2019 following a joint venture with a Swiss entrepreneur.