Glenturret 50YO goes on sale for £40,000
Scotch producer The Glenturret has released its oldest whisky to date: a 50-year-old single malt, priced at £40,000 (US$47,000).
Only 150 bottles of The Glenturret 50 Years Old have been created. The whisky was matured in a refill Sherry cask, which was filled in 1972. It has been bottled at its cask strength of 40% ABV without added caramel colouring. Tasting notes include aromas of aromatic candy, fresh apple and honeycomb. The palate is said to bring syrup sponge, dates, dried prunes and a touch of aniseed. Sotheby’s will auction bottle number one during its Whisky in Lalique sale (running from 30 August to 9 September), which will be the first whisky auction to exclusively offer Scotch in Lalique. The first decanter will be the only bottle to come with artwork, created in collaboration with Method Studio, which commissioned Scottish artist Matthew Draper for the project. The high-end estimate for bottle number one is £60,000 (US$70,320). John Laurie, The Glenturret’s managing director, said: “We are so excited to be releasing a 50-year-old expression for the first time ever. “But to do it in partnership with the extraordinary creative talents, Lalique, Method and Matthew Draper, whose values both mirror our own philosophy when it comes to craftsmanship and the importance of making things by hand, is just incredible. “The result is a rare and unique collector’s piece, and the work that has gone into this project really does justice to the remarkable liquid that can be found inside.” The one-off artwork was created from pigments and inks that were harvested by charring and burning the 50-year-old cask staves – a variation on an ancient ink-making technique. Marc Larminaux, artistic and creative director at Lalique, designed the packaging. Inspired by barley, the whisky is bottled in black crystal – the rarest and most expensive crystal available. Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s head of whisky and spirits North America and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), said: “This 50-year-old whisky from The Glenturret represents so much more than just the depth of history at this distillery. “It is an opportunity to be the first to collect The Glenturret’s rarest bottles and the only opportunity to acquire the accompanying art piece made from the barrel itself.”
