American light artist James Turrell has designed a limited-edition whisky decanter for The Glenturret, featuring a prism-shaped stopper inspired by a longstanding fascination with the pyramids of Egypt and the dome-shaped Buddhist stupas of Asia.
The design, made in collaboration with the historic French crystal brand Lalique (following Turrell and Lalique’s perfume bottle collaboration), has a cobalt blue stopper with a violet neck, while the transparent tapered body of the decanter allows the amber liquid within to colour it.
The diaphanous crystal tones reflect Turrell’s career-long experimentation with light and colour, which typically takes the form of immersive installations harmonising with the dawn and dusk tones of the sky.
James Turrell whisky decanter for The Glenturret
The decanter, named Eight Decades, was commissioned to celebrate Turrell’s recent 80th birthday, and is available as an edition of 80, priced £80,000. In keeping with the theme, The Glenturret whisky within – which has notes of fruitcake, chocolate orange and berries – is drawn from eight casks laid down between 1987 and 1998.
'I love a single malt whisky,' says Turrell. '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 – I wanted this piece to have the same sensibility as the perfume bottles,' adds Turrell, referring to his pair of Lalique crystal perfume bottles, which won the title of Wallpaper’s Best Grooming Product 2023. 'A tribute to Egypt, pyramids and stupas, these architectural forms are cross-cultural. They move something deep within me.‘
'The collaboration with Lalique and James Turrell makes perfect sense when you recall that [founder] René Lalique was known as the “sculptor of light”,‘ says Lalique CEO and chair Silivo Denz.
‘An enduring approach to savoir-faire and taste aligns with James Turrell’s understated, futuristic aesthetic. Eight Decades is the incarnation of excellence at every level – the perfect balance and a beautiful work of art, a celebration of individuals who contribute to the process over generations, a trophy in their honour.'
Denz heads up the Lalique Group, a Swiss luxury goods portfolio that owns Lalique crystal and a 50 per cent stake in The Glenturret, Scotland’s oldest working distillery.
