150-year-old Scotch Whisky auctioned for £14,750

EDINBURGH: A half-sized bottle of Scotch whisky that’s about 150 years old sold for £14,750 ($28,820) at auction in London, beating the top pre-sale estimate by almost 50%. The Glenavon Special Liqueur Whisky, bottled on Speyside, in north-east Scotland, between 1851 and 1858, was bought by an unidentified buyer at the auction. The bottle contains 14 fluid ounces and the whisky may be the world’s oldest, according to Bonhams, the auctioneers.

“There is an increasing interest in whiskies that are a bit different,” Richard Harvey, head of European wine sales at Bonhams, said. “I think it’s a record for that size.” Bonhams had estimated a sale price of £10,000 for the half-sized bottle. The prices collectors are willing to pay for Scotch malt whisky have risen. An anonymous Asian buyer paid 70 million South Korean won ($75,200) for the last bottle of 1926 Macallan malt whisky in 2005, a record for a public auction. A 60-year-old Macallan bottle fetched £20,150 in 2002. The winning bidder was represented by telephone from Scotland, Mr Harvey said. The bidder whose offer was beaten came from the US.

The Glenavon whisky may date back to before 1851 as there are no records of the distillery before then, Mr Harvey said. The bottle was sold by a Northern Ireland woman whose family owned it for at least three generations. The Glenavon distillery was licensed in 1852 to John G Smith, son of the founder of the nearby Glenlivet Distillery. In 1859, they consolidated their distilleries at Glenlivet, which is now owned by Pernod-Ricard’s Chivas Brothers unit. The price included a 10% so-called buyer’s premium, the fee payable by the buyer to Bonhams.