How the world fell in love with whisky

[Gob]

So one day not so long ago, says Neil Urquhart, a man walks into the shop. Gordon & MacPhail's on South Street in Elgin, in Moray, opened in 1895. A temple in the world of malt whisky. More than 1,000 varieties, pretty much every scotch currently available in Britain, plus some that aren't, at least not anywhere else.

Anyway, says Urquhart, who was working in the shop at the time, the fourth generation of his family to join the firm, this chap walked in, more or less off the street: "He knew what he wanted, mostly. A specific Ardbeg, an older Macallan. I steered him a wee bit for the others. He bought four bottles of whisky. For £20,000. He was Taiwanese


interesting article, continues here.

[The Hen]

Have you been having a wet day dream today dear?

[Daisy]

Shush .. at least he's reading The Guardian instead of raising his blood pressure with The Daily Fail!

[Gob]

Drinks giant Diageo is to sell 60 limited edition whisky bottles at £100,000 apiece to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee next year.

The whisky will be produced in Scotland by Diageo-owned John Walker and Sons.

All profits will go to the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (Qest), the charitable arm of the Royal Warrant Holders Association.

They will be bottled on 6 February 2012 - exactly 60 years to the day since the Queen acceded to the throne.

The Diamond Jubilee Blended Scotch Whisky will feature a blend of whiskies distilled in 1952 at various distilleries across Scotland and finished in a cask of English oak from the Queen's Sandringham Estate.

Each will be presented in a lead crystal decanter adorned with a Britannia silver collar that features a half-carat diamond and an individually numbered silver seal.

This will be accompanied by a pair of hand-engraved lead crystal glasses housed in a cabinet incorporating woods from the Queen's Sandringham and Balmoral estates.

Profits from the sale will be used to help Qest "enable traditional craftsmanship to flourish in Britain".

Jim Beveridge, master blender for John Walker and Sons, said: "These are extraordinary grain and malt whiskies that have been maturing slowly since 1952.

"It's a huge privilege to work with them using all our resources and experience to craft a John Walker and Sons blend that's fitting for this special anniversary.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-s ... s-13682879

[oldr_n_wsr]

"These are extraordinary grain and malt whiskies that have been maturing slowly since 1952.

Oh sure NOW they come out with it now that I've stopped drinking.

[Liberty1]

Easy OnW, I doubt that any of that will actually be drunk. Folks will just have-it.

[Scooter]

I'm sorry, but what makes a bottle of whisky worth £100,000? Is it really 5,000 times better than a bottle that costs £20?

[Liberty1]

Like anything, it's worth what someone will pay for it.

[rubato]

Having a LOT of money and no imagination or taste does not constitute 'the world falling in love with' anything. The amounts spent on idiotic sports or rock star memorabilia should have clued you in to this.

yrs,
rubato

[Scooter]

Like anything, it's worth what someone will pay for it.

So the government services you are getting are worth the trillion dollar deficit you are running.

[rubato]

If the primary cause of the trillion dollar deficit were government services to the general population then it might be worth it.

yrs,
rubato

[Liberty1]

So the government services you are getting are worth the trillion dollar deficit you are running.

Well it obviously is to the leftest politicians.

I on the other hand don't and believe they should all be cut about 50%.


But hey, they've gotta pay fore their votes somehow.

[Gob]

I'm sorry, but what makes a bottle of whisky worth £100,000? Is it really 5,000 times better than a bottle that costs £20?

No more than a $100 bottle of good wine is 10 x better than a $10 bottle of plonk.


Is a penny black "worth" millions of times more than a 65 c postage stamp? I think not, objectively, subjectively though....

[Scooter]

So the government services you are getting are worth the trillion dollar deficit you are running.

Well it obviously is to the leftest politicians.

It obviously is to pretty well all politicians because they just finished voting for essentially the status quo.

Sorry, end of hijack.

[Gob]

Thank you!

[Liberty1]

It obviously is to pretty well all politicians because they just finished voting for essentially the status quo.

Agreed, but at least some non-leftests are trying now.

[rubato]

I'm sorry, but what makes a bottle of whisky worth £100,000? Is it really 5,000 times better than a bottle that costs £20?

In my experience $35 - $80 per bottle wine is a big improvement over $15 wine and $200-300 champagne is really wonderful* and markedly better than the $50 - $75 I would ever spend on it but the marginal advantage of higher price does run out pretty quickly.

And scots whisky is such a limited palette that spending stupid amounts is really for the truly bone-stupid who need to be separated from their wealth as rapidly as possible. It is one of the classic areas of phony sophistication.

yrs,
rubato

* We have a friend who "pays" for his thanksgiving dinner with a really amazing bottle of champagne each year.

[Sean]

Umm... I think in this particular case you would be paying as much for the bottle and glasses as for the whisky and rarity...

[Gob]

A Chinese businessman has put down a deposit for a rare bottle of whisky costing nearly $200,000 at a duty-free shop in Singapore's Changi airport, an airport spokesman said Monday.

With a price tag of Sg$250,000 ($194,000) the 62-year-old bottle of Dalmore single malt is reportedly one of the most expensive ever sold.

The buyer spotted the bottle on display and quickly made a deposit of Sg$100,000 by bank transfer, Changi Airport Group spokesman Ivan Tan said.

"It's one of only 12 bottles in the world," Tan said.

He described the buyer as a "frequent visitor to Singapore", but declined to give more details.

The bottle was part of a special promotion called "Master of Spirits" aimed at connoisseurs, and it remained on display in a glass case at the shop Monday pending full payment by the buyer.

According to the Edinburgh-based Scotch Whisky Association, Singapore unseated Spain to become the third-largest importer of whisky worldwide after the United States and France in the first half of 2011.

Much of Singapore's scotch imports eventually go to other Asian markets, thanks to its strong trade and tourism links with the rest of the region.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/t ... z1YSZ5Z4rG

[loCAtek]

Would be the Chinese.