Glenmorangie’s latest collab is an invitation to look around us

Glenmorangie Dr Bill Lumsden x Azuma Makoto 23 Years Old is built around ‘shinra bansho’, a Japanese concept that takes in all things in nature.

In recent months, it feels like Scotch single malt brand Glenmorangie has released a new limited edition every five minutes. But when the invitation dropped into the inbox to attend the launch of its latest collab with Japanese flower artist Azuma Makoto, it did not feel like business as usual. 

Interestingly, it’s not because it’s a new partnership. Lumsden and Azuma first worked together in 2021 on the release of an 18-year-old expression. At the time, the artist compared the single malt to a flower in bloom. This time, he’s gone far further, creating an enormous floral sculpture to accompany the 2024 edition.

An elemental dram

First: the whisky. It’s the result of Lumsden honing in on Glenmorangie’s floral side. So far, so expected. But what’s achieved through the cask selection really is strikingly elemental. The 23-year-old whisky, described as ‘extraordinarily rare although no outturn has been given*, started life in bourbon barrels. It was then blended with the first whisky from the distillery to be finished in ex-Meursault chardonnay casks. The citrus florals from the former complement the petrichor, forest floor and leafy notes of the latter. Nosing the glass, you’re transported to the heat of a summer woodland post-thundery downpour.

It was this whisky that Azuma drew on when developing his sculpture. Unveiled on a sticky summer evening at London’s Saatchi Gallery, the installation was mesmerising. Alive and formed with mosses rather than oasis, roses, orchids and Scottish wildflowers were wound through roots and tree bark. The piece must have been over nine feet tall, a breathtaking piece of art in its own right. That it was inspired by the tasting notes of a whisky made it feel somehow all the more special. 

Back to nature

That muggy, sweaty evening inadvertently came with an urgent message, too. However gorgeous the plants in that living sculpture might be, they were never going to last. We witnessed a fleeting moment in time before the vibrant flowers would wilt and the leaves began to droop. Not even the industrial fans brought in to keep us cool would save it. The invitation to touch, smell, appreciate the blooms had an inherent time limit – like so many moments in our lives do.

With the Azuma Makoto’s striking, if fleeting, floral sculpture

That truth, exacerbated by the heat, felt very aligned with the shinra bansho philosophy. The outside had been brought in for a brief moment of beauty. But it’s just a tiny fragment of the wider world. And there’s so much we miss when we don’t take a moment to appreciate it. As Azuma himself said, the sculpture is “a response to my view of Earth’s blessings – my sense of gratitude for nature”. What a reminder to step away from the grind and take a moment to just breathe in the world around us. 

I was invited by Glenmorangie to attend the press launch of Dr Bill Lumsden x Azuma Makoto 23 Years Old at the Saatchi Gallery. The expression is available now in the UK, China, Japan, Taiwan, India and the USA with an RRP of £1,050.

*See my thoughts on the language of ‘limited editions’ here.