One of the world’s most popular single malt distilleries, The Glenlivet, just released its oldest whisky to date, and at $55,000 per bottle it also happens to be one of its most expensive. The Glenlivet Eternal Collection, First Edition, 55 Year Old is meant to celebrate the distillery’s 200th anniversary, and it’s the first in a new series that will increase in age every year. Surely there are some well-heeled whisky aficionados out there who are planning to collect them all.
The first edition of the Eternal Collection was aged for most of its nearly six-decade lifespan in a combination of bourbon and sherry barrels before being finished in a “bespoke” sherry cask for an a full years. According to a rep for the brand, that cask is a mixture of Oloroso, Pedro Ximenez and Palo Cortado sherry casks, and just 100 bottles were pulled from this. We were not able to sample this whisky for ourselves, but official tasting notes describe a palate full of blackcurrant jam, vanilla fudge, dark chocolate; orange, crystalized ginger and cloves on the finish.
As you might have guessed, an elevated whisky like this is going to come in some fancy packaging, and of course that’s the case here. The Glenlivet partnered with computational architect Michael Hansmeyer on the inaugural release in the Eternal Collection, and he came up with a sculpture that’s supposed to represent the River Livet near the distillery. We’re not talking the usual Baccarat crystal here, however—Hansmeyer’s jesmonite sculpture is plated with rose gold and specially shaped to house the spherical decanter. “My work captures the intersection of architecture and the arts,” he said in a statement. “Weaving threads of intelligent technologies to create something that escapes conformity and classification to celebrate such an aged whisky has been a thrill. I created this sculpture as a tribute to the complexity of the Glenlivet’s oldest expression and the rugged beauty of the distillery’s Scottish landscape, capturing the spirit of where innovation meets tradition.”
As mentioned earlier, this is the first release in this new series, and each of the following Eternal Collection whiskies will be aged for an additional year in the same bespoke cask and partnered with a different artist (and also presumably progressively more expensive). The Glenlivet is working with Sotheby’s to auction off one of the first bottles with all proceeds going to benefit National Trust for Scotland (the auction will run from October 22 to November 5). If you’re interested in getting ahold of one of these rare whiskies, you can check your local premium retailer (who hopefully won’t be marking them up much more than the $55,000 asking price), or you can contact the Glenlivet directly.
