Unglaublich, aber... Slainté!
Hotel guest pays £32,000 for wee dram before bed
By Duncan Gardham
(Filed: 16/06/2005)
A hotel guest has bought a bottle of whisky for £32,000 and drunk it in one night.
The anonymous regular at the Pennyhill Park Hotel in Bagshot, Surrey, was joined by a group of friends who helped him put away the world's most expensive single malt in the oak-panelled surroundings of the establishment's Ascot bar.
The bottle, a Dalmore 62-year-old malt, was produced by the tiny Scottish distillery at Alness, Ross-shire, 20 miles north of Inverness, three years ago.
The distillery combined casks of malt from 1868, 1878, 1926 and 1939 to make the single malt, making the youngest of the ingredients 62 years old when bottled.
The bottle, drunk late one evening in Surrey last month, is believed to be the only one of 12 to have been opened. One remains at the distillery and the others were sold to private collectors.
The hotel bought the bottle little expecting it to be drunk. David Broadhead, the general manager, would not reveal the identity of the middle-aged buyer, thought to be from Berkshire, but described him as a "regular hotel guest and a private collector of fine spirits".
He added: "He's got the bottle and he's got the presentation case, so at least it's on his shelf as a memento."
Denis Barthe, who looks after the hotel's VIP guests and was offered a taste by the customer, said it was "exquisite" and added that the customer "has the philosophy that there's no point in buying these fine whiskies and never drinking them".
A bottle of the Dalmore 62 sold at auction in Glasgow for £25,877.50 in December 2002, just after it was bottled, beating the previous record of £20,000 for a single malt.
The hotel bought its bottle from dealers for around £31,000, making the across-the-bar price a world record.
It was finished in an Oloroso Matusalem Sherry butt from Gonzalez Byass, Spain, and bottled at natural cask strength of 40.5 per cent volume.
Each of the 12 bottles is named after different characters and events in the distillery's history. The one that was drunk was called the "Matheson", after Alexander Matheson, who founded the distillery on the shore of the Cromarty Firth in 1839.
The distillery's master blender, Richard Paterson, said he was pleased the bottle had been "opened, shared and enjoyed".
His tasting notes describe the whisky as refined and elegant and add: "The true beauty of this unique single malt is unsurpassed.
"It must therefore be given total respect and sufficient time to fully open and reveal its many mysteries. The palate must be prepared - the time must be right. This indeed will be a memorable occasion."
Drew Sinclair, 62, the manager of the Dalmore distillery, said yesterday: "It is absolutely fantastic. I have worked at Dalmore for 40 years, so I have looked after this whisky for more than half its life.
"You want to savour it, so it's no use getting drunk and forgetting what it tastes like."
Quelle: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtm…/nwhisky16.xml&
