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Acclaimed whiskey brand, The Dalmore, is headed to Sotheby’s with a one-of-a-kind release that marries the worlds of spirits, art, and design.

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“The Rare” is a 49-year-old Highland Single Malt Whiskey preserved in a unique amber glass sculpture, designed by Melodie Leung, a director at Zaha Hadid Architects. Initially unveiled in March as a part of The Dalmore’s Luminary Series, the “Luminary No.2 The Rare” is predicted to fetch six figures at auction, with The Dalmore donating all proceeds to V&A Dundee.

This collaboration is a collector’s piece for both whiskey lovers and art enthusiasts alike. It presents one of The Dalmore’s finest spirits — a 49-year-old single malt matured in American white oak ex-Bourbon casks, then finished in an assemblage, which includes a unique Port Colheita Pipe 1963, a 30-year-old Apostoles Sherry Cask, and hand-selected bourbon barrels. The liquor is finished in a 1951 virgin oak cask and further “bespoke toasted” by The Dalmore’s master maker Gregg Glass himself.

Bottled at 40.6% ABV, anticipate the taste notes of vanilla, dark berries, and roasted chestnuts with elements of sugared almonds, plums, and wood cacao.

The accompanying sculpture is composed of a seamless piece of glass that swirls and loops around the bottle without a clear start or finish point. As Leung clarified in a launch event to celebrate the alliance in Los Angeles last month, the sculpture draws inspiration from the interaction of flavor and form, and the sense of unity and gathering that stems from the ritual of sharing a drink.

“The sculpture we created for The Rare was inspired by our fascinating discussions around the interaction and flow of flavor notes in the whisky-making process, including the unique silhouettes of the copper stills,” Leung says, in a release. “It mirrors the multiple layers of aging and blending that went into creating this whisky, which is the exquisite product of nature channelled over time.”

Indeed, Leung’s piece took more than three months to produce, with handmade moulds created for the glass to shape its unique curves and sloping silhouette. The glass was heated in a specially-sourced kiln and then cooled — one degree at a time — over a 12-week period. The resulting piece weighs a whopping 80 kg.

The Sotheby’s auction runs from May 14-31 in London, presented as part of the auction house’s “Luxury Edit.” Only three decanter bottles and two sculptures were created. After the first set is auctioned off, a second set will be displayed at The Dalmore distillery in the Highlands, with a third bottle held for release at a later date.

While “The Rare” is a strictly one-off release (for now), fans of The Dalmore can spring for a bottle of “The Collectible,” a 16-year-old single malt that draws inspiration from both “The Rare” whiskey and sculpture. Limited to just 20,000 bottles worldwide, “The Collectible” is part of The Dalmore Luminary Series 2024 and .

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