When Gordon & MacPhail set out to release the world’s oldest single malt scotch whisky, the legendary distiller turned to American architect Jeanne Gang, founder of Studio Gang, to design a vessel worthy of encasing a spirit aged for over eight decades. The Chicago-based architect’s decanter design, titled Artistry in Oak, transforms the ritual of drinking into an encounter with time, nature and craft.

Gang’s vision suspends a mouth-blown glass bottle within four bronze branches that spiral upward like a tree cradling amber. Inspired by American oak—the wood that held the whisky since 1940—the branches both protect and reveal, their polished edges catching light while their surfaces patina with time. “I was fascinated to learn about everything involved in whisky’s creation, from barley grains with their herringbone patterns, to airtight casks made of American oak staves and the hammered copper stills with their strange yet purposeful forms,” Gang explains in the press release. “Each careful step – and there are many more – lends something to a whisky’s unique flavour. And then there is the wait: the years of protecting the casks so they can age, a practice so at odds with contemporary urges of instant gratification.”

“There is an old adage: the wood makes the whisky,” states Gordon & MacPhail in the press release. “When the American oak tree—harvested to make the cask that cradled this whisky for eight and a half decades—started its life, Queen Victoria was a newlywed, Tsar Nicholas I ruled Russia, Daoguang reigned in China’s Qing dynasty and a young Abraham Lincoln was still practising law in Illinois.” To this, Stephen Rankin, director of Gordon & MacPhail, adds: “One of the greatest challenges was that it has never been done before; we’re the first to mature a whisky for 85 years. Every year that goes by is a year into the unknown. We have to appreciate we’re always dealing with Mother Nature, so the key traits of this process are patience and trust.”

The result is Gordon & MacPhail 85 YO from Glenlivet Distillery, surpassing the company’s own record set in 2021 with an 80-year-old release presented in a decanter by Sir David Adjaye, OBE. With only 125 editions produced, the new release continues the distiller’s tradition of pairing rare whisky with equally rare designs.

Gang’s concept is rooted in protection and transformation. The twisted branches shelter the vessel as a tree might shield what it holds. “The glass starts as a molten clump at the end of a tube, taking on its future shape with the addition of human breath and hand-rotation. This process inspired the vessel’s final form that reminds us of its once liquid state and hints at the natural forms found in nature,” she explains. The celebrated architect extends the philosophy towards the materiality of bronze, which also begins in a liquid state. The four gently spiralling bronze branches of the decanter will develop a patina over time similar to the way whiskey deepens in colour and character over the years. “Together, the elements depend on and complement each other, in a reciprocal dance whose form, like the whisky it holds, is a product of both natural growth and the nature of its materiality,” Gang adds.

Decanter #1, one among the 125 made, will be auctioned by Christie’s, with proceeds benefiting American Forests, the United States’ oldest national conservation nonprofit. The partnership supports the restoration of white oak forests—vital to both ecosystems and sustainable whisky barrel production. The winning auction lot for Decanter #1 will also include a private tasting with Gordon & MacPhail, a framed oak sketch by Jeanne Gang, and the preserved cask end from Cask 336, which held the spirit for more than eight decades.