The Glenturret, Scotland’s Oldest Working Distillery, will release a 50-year-old whisky for the first time ever. The first of 150 bottles will be auctioned in Sotheby’s forthcoming whisky auction.

The auction will be the first such auction in history to focus solely on whisky bottle in Lalique vessels.

As a distillery that is celebrated for specialising in small-batch, hand crafted whiskies, The Glenturret is known to have a genuinely scarce volume of whisky available, making this expression a greatly coveted release. Bottles will retail for £40,000.

Housed in a striking, black crystal decanter produced by Lalique, the exterior is black crystal – the rarest and most expensive crystal as it is the most difficult to produce. Designed by Marc Larminaux, Artistic and Creative Director at Lalique, barley is the inspiration for the decanter, represented through a tactile smooth and frosted finish on the motif, hand carved into the crystal by Lalique Craftsmen at its sole factory in Alsace which celebrates 100 years this year. 

Sotheby’s will be auctioning off decanter number 1 of 150 during their Whisky in Lalique, which continues through Sept. 9. The high estimate lot price for this unparalleled bottle has been valued at £60,000 and comes in a bespoke black case with mother of pearl inlays. 

This first decanter is the only one to be offered with a unique artwork, devised in collaboration with  Method Studio who commissioned Scottish artist Matthew Draper for the project. On this occasion, the artwork titled ‘Loch Turret’ depicts the ancient freshwater Loch Turret that provides The Glenturret Distillery with the  water that will become its whisky.

This one-off collector’s item has been created from  pigments and inks that have been harvested by charring and burning the 50 Years Old cask staves – a variation on an ancient ink-making technique based on tannic reaction that is a nod to the values of  provenance, prowess, and passion, which The Glenturret places at the heart of its whisky making.  

The whisky was drawn from a singular remaining cask which was filled in 1972; it has spent the last five decades maturing in a refill Sherry cask which gives the whisky a striking antique oak colour.  

The Glenturret 50 Years Old will be available online at www.theglenturret.com from 12^th September  2022. 

Along with bottle No. 1 of the 50-year-old, Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s Head of Whisky & Spirits, North America and EMEA, and his team have sourced whiskies from private collections across the world that have been bottled in Lalique Crystal decanters. The remaining 10 lots in the sale are made up exclusively of The Macallan, including an offering of The Macallan in Lalique Six Pillars Collection.

The catalogue for the auction can be found here.