If you have $51,000 burning a hole in your pocket and no need for a new set of wheels, consider The Macallan Horizon.
The Macallan and Bentley Motors launched the new single malt on Wednesday as a part of the distillery’s 200th anniversary celebrations. It comes in a horizontally oriented glass bottle enrobed in aluminum ribbon, a recycled copper frame made of former Macallan stills, and low-carbon leather. The whole shebang is housed in a spiralized, leather-lined wooden casing with an oak inlay featuring Bentley’s Crown Cut Walnut veneer. According to The Macallan, the bottle’s unorthodox shape and twisted details represents the “horizontal trajectory of the automotive world.”
“In the spirits world, everything is vertical, such as our stills and our bottles,” says The Macallan creative director Juame Ferras, according to The Spirits Business. “When we looked at the horizontal plane that Bentley’s grand tourers occupy, it made us consider if and how we could adapt this format for whisky, which ultimately requires to be poured and enjoyed.”
The whisky itself is a new expression drawn from six first-fill, Sherry-seasoned oak casks and crafted by master whisky maker Kirsteen Campbell. According to the brand, the liquid offers resinous polished oak with plums and dark cherries on the nose followed by dark treacle notes with cinder toffee, crystallized ginger and charred pineapple on the palate.
The Macallan is no stranger to six- and seven-digit price tags. In 2022, The Macallan Reach became the oldest-ever Scotch whisky release and retailed for $125,000. The following year, the distillery’s Adami 1926 vintage fetched an auction price of $2.7 million.
The Macallan Horizon is now available at select retailers for a whopping price of £40,000 ($51,274) — a notch higher than the average price of a new car.