In response, high-end whiskys now come in bottles that are art sculptures unto themselves. From abstract, gem-like carafes to Rodinesque hands holding up ample-bottomed decanters, the possible shapes for a drink bottle have continued to grow. Still, vertical remains the go-to aesthetic when it comes to container design. Macallan and Bentley, however, are looking to dispel that tradition, instead opting for their first-ever collaboration, The Horizon, to arrive in a horizontal glass vessel.

This is by no means the first time Macallan has stepped into the ultra expensive whisky stratosphere. Just over a year ago they released The Reach, an 81-year-old whisky priced at $125,000 per bottle (which is by some accounts the world’s oldest whisky).

For their collaboration, Bentley and Macallan pulled out all the stops when it comes to bottle design. Featuring a 180-degree twist detail, the Macallan Horizon release incorporates six materials: glass, wood, aluminum, copper, leather, and whisky.

The Macallan Horizon bottle is made up of two parts—a glass vessel that holds the liquid and the copper and wood sculpture that encases the vessel. The twisting glass vessel is enveloped by an aluminum ribbon designed in homage to the aluminum sculptural foundation found in Bentley cars.

The glass and aluminum vessel is designed to be twisted out of the wood and copper sculpture, which features low carbon leather on its interior, much like the interior of the British motorcars. The sculpture uses recycled copper from the Macallan Distillery’s old stills, while the majority of the sculpture is made from one of the six casks used in the maturation of the whisky. 

Bentley and Macallan could only create the bottle “by using highly skilled traditional glassmaking techniques fused with an extensive understanding of modern manufacturing,” says Jaume Ferras, Macallan’s Creative Director. The twisted glass vessel and spinning wood-and-copper sculpture looks like an exploding cask and required Bentley and Macallan to work with “artisanal craftspeople to create new techniques and processes,” according to Chris Cooke, Head of Design Collaborations at Bentley Motors.

But it was the closure that caused the most challenges. “We needed to conduct rigorous testing to ensure that the closure was exactly how we needed it to be to accommodate our most ambitious product design yet,” says Ferras. Inspired by the Bentley Drive Dynamics Control rotary knob, the horizontal direction of the bottle made the closure unlike anything Macallan had tackled before, and different from bottles created by competitors.

To drink from the bottle, which is meant to be displayed horizontally, it is twisted out of the sculpture, the aluminum overcap slid off, the cap unscrewed, and finally it’s poured just like any other bottle. “We wanted to incorporate a design, which gave a sense of motion,” says Ferras. “The twist itself directly relates to this idea of onward motion, but importantly for us it also means that the vessel and the display sculpture actually interact with one another as the vessel must rotate as it enters its resting position, fusing them as one entity.”

The push to create complex bottles for high-end spirits makes a lot of sense when you consider that they are effectively collectible pieces of art (just 700 bottles of the $50,000 Macallan Horizon will be made available globally). And many of these $10,000-plus whiskies seem be a good investment if you can afford it: A bottle of The Reach sold on Whisky Auctioneer for £201,000 (about $260,000 USD). A $50,000 bottle of whisky is certainly not for everyone (an understatement), but for those who can afford it, a horizontal bottle will look pretty nice on a bookshelf.