The Dalmore and Zaha Hadid Architects Create Rare Whisky for Auction

Zaha Hadid director Melodie Leung hits the high notes for Dalmore whisky.

It’s 2am on a Friday in March at the glamorous American Bar in the Gleneagles Hotel as Melodie Leung, director at internationally acclaimed design studio Zaha Hadid Architects, regales me from a plush armchair in the cashmere-panelled walls of the Gatsby-era-inspired space with tales of her past. Specifically, her parents, two classical musicians from Hong Kong, who met while playing in Scotland – hence the name Melodie. Although born and raised in Chicago, but now living and working in London, the poignancy of the moment is palpable.

Not seven hours earlier, we’d been at Dundee’s Victoria & Albert Museum for the unveiling of Leung’s one-off glass sculpture for whisky distillery The Dalmore, which houses a rare edition of a specially created 49-year-old highland single malt matured in a variety of casks, to be auctioned by Sotheby’s on May 17 to raise money for the museum. Called The Dalmore Luminary No 2 Rare Sculpture, this work follows on from the inaugural collaboration between the V&A and Dalmore in 2022, when Japanese architect Kengo Kuma created a timber sculpture informed by kintsugi, a ceramic mending technique in which cracks are filled with golden lacquer. 

“My parents were a part of the Hong Kong Youth Symphony Orchestra,” elaborates Leung, who earlier in the evening was wearing a dramatic Robert Wun purple-collar outfit. 

“They met in Aberdeen, Scotland, where the orchestra was taking part in a youth orchestra festival. My Dad played the violin and my Mum, the cello. He finally plucked up the courage to offer to help her carry the cello when he saw her on the platform.” Awww.

The power and significance of the moment reflects the intensity and luxuriance of both her sculpture and the taste of the whisky, which she also helped create with master whisky maker Gregg Glass and master distiller Richard Paterson; Leung’s childhood memories of roast chestnuts on the street-food stalls of Hong Kong informs similar notes in the 49-year-old Luminary No 2. “At Zaha Hadid Architects,” she explains, “this type of multi-disciplinary collaboration is what really excites us. Richard and Gregg were very involved in our design process, and I was extremely privileged to be able to inspire and input into the whisky. 

“There’s a very strong symbiotic relationship to the way in which we design. It’s a very iterative process. I was fascinated by how every single aspect – from the weather to the barley, to the shape of the still, to the barrel that the whisky sits in – every step of the process in making the whisky has an effect on the final result. For the sculpture we wanted to create something that evoked a layering of ingredients, of experience, of movement.” 

Leung was inspired by the shapes of whisky stills used in the process of distilling Scotch, and also by the process of liquid being swirled around in a glass. “We studied which direction the whisky should take, which direction held the most intriguing mix of something beautiful but also unique. The sculpture mirrors the multiple layers of ageing and blending that went into creating this whisky, which is the exquisite product of nature channelled one time.”  

Glass says Leung brought a new level of thinking to the world of whisky-making. “What I really love about this partnership is looking at every detail, at every level, not just what’s outside the bottle but also what’s inside the bottle. And that’s what’s beautiful about working together and has been so inspiring as a whisky maker.” Glass explain that he and The Dalmore team first met Leung and her team more than two years ago. “We were intrigued by her philosophy about design,” he says.

Leung has also created a collectible 16-year-old malt in a specially designed decanter and presentation case, which is currently available. “With the collectible, we tried to create something that expanded beyond the boundaries of the box it’s packaged in, so that when people look at it they already see the swirling movement that evokes the design concept for the project.”

Notable female whisky influencer @swedishwhiskygirl who’s based in Edinburgh and has more than 20,000 followers, was full of praise for the collectible at the tasting. “It’s been initially matured in bourbon and finished in Apostoles sherry casks as well as tawny port casks,” she says. “A small portion of the spirit is also peated stock. The whisky was delightfully fruity with sweet berry notes, and I found the port cask character particularly present. It had an inviting silky texture with a full mouthfeel which I found immensely enjoyable.” 

“To be able to bring a world-class architect to think about how to encase some of the most precious liquid that’s ever been created by Dalmore feels really special,” says V&A Dundee director Leonie Bell. “It’s also a unique opportunity for us to work with Melodie, and a step forward in terms of what female architects are contributing on the world stage of design.” 

And commerce. Consider; the Scotch Whisky Association says exports of its Scotch were valued at £5.6 billion in 2023, with 1.35 billion bottles exported, which equates to 43 bottles a second. Exports last year were up by 17 percent on 2019. In 2022, there were two million visits to Scotch whisky distillers, making its visitor centres collectively the most popular tourist attraction in Scotland. To be called Scotch, the spirit must mature in oak casks in Scotland for at least three years. Post-pandemic restocking, the return of travel retail and “premiumisation” have all contributed to growing sales for The Dalmore. The Scottish spirits industry supports 66,000 jobs across the UK, 41,000 of which are in Scotland. In 2022, India was the largest market by volume for Scotch. 

Asia’s vast whisky market is the real prize. And while India may be voluming, Japan is by far the most mature market in Asia for Scotch. The country’s links and close relationship to the Highlands goes back to the 1920s, when Masataka Taketsuru opened the first Japanese whisky distillery using the knowledge he’d gained working in the industry for several years in Scotland. Today, Japan imports more than 50 million bottles of Scotch per year. 

So complex was the process for Leung’s sculpture that when she approached glass producers the majority turned her down, all except for The Glass Foundry, who committed to the project, which involved amber cast glass, 12 weeks in a kiln and more than 500 hours to polish. Says the foundry’s creative director Fiaz Elson, “When you start such a project, you don’t know what the final outcome will be.” And indeed, Leung’s first iteration of the sculpture didn’t work. “It cracked,” explains Elson. “It was only about halfway through the time needed in the kiln and it cracked. So we had to start all over again.” 

After joining the practice in 2005, Leung worked alongside the late Pritzker Prize-winning Hadid for 11 years. While Hadid was described by many as one of contemporary architecture’s most influential figures, as Leung tells it, “Working with Zaha, in the practice she founded, it was much more about challenging the process – so challenging each other, and our preconceptions in our design ideas.” She says the idea for the Luminary project fits with such a spirit. “Our Luminary continues Zaha Hadid’s philanthropic endeavours, including nurturing up-and-coming designers to think individually, generate creative visions and aspire to remain at the forefront of the industry.”

Paterson, a much-decorated veteran of the Highland whisky world, notes the moving quality of the project, both physical and emotional: “It’s something that evokes motion more than anything. Melodie just captures that. It’s everything working in harmony. It stirs the emotions.”

A Chinese woman in a Scottish hotel leading one of the world’s leading architectural and design firms, and championing a product in a traditionally male-dominated ecosystem. If more than a little love did find its way into the bottle, don’t be surprised. Between Leung, Glass and Paterson, music was made. And as much as the project is called Luminary, I tell her it might more accurately be called LuMelodie. 

(Header image: The Dalmore Luminary No 2 Rare Sculpture)