Record smashed at auction of one of 40 bottles of oldest-ever Macallan vintage, described as ‘rich, rich dram’
The record for the world’s most expensive bottle of whisky has been broken after a bottle of Macallan 1926 went for £2.1m at a Sotheby’s auction in London.
The sale set a new record for any bottle of spirit or wine sold at auction, the auction house told the AFP news agency.
Continue reading...Viet Nguyen Dinh Tuan bought 311-litre bottle of 32-year-old Macallan single malt for £1.1m at auction
The previously anonymous buyer of the world’s largest bottle of whisky, which at 5ft 11in is taller than the average human, has been revealed as a Vietnamese businessman who already owns a spirits collection valued at more than £150m.
Viet Nguyen Dinh Tuan bought the 311-litre bottle filled with 32-year-old Macallan single malt for £1.1m at auction in Edinburgh last year.
Continue reading...Coles, Da Mhile, In the Welsh Wind and Penderyn distilleries awarded label in scheme brought in to replace EU version
Welsh whisky is to join its Scottish and Irish counterparts in being officially awarded protected origin status under the UK’s post-Brexit regime.
Single malt from four distilleries in south and west Wales – Coles, Da Mhile, In the Welsh Wind and Penderyn – has been awarded protected geographical indication (UK GI) status, the scheme brought in to replace the EU’s protected designation of origin label.
Continue reading...Investigation concludes six officials violated state ethics laws by diverting alcohol, including Pappy Van Winkle, for own purchase
Officials with Oregon’s liquor and marijuana regulating agency allegedly “abused their position for personal gain” and violated state ethics laws to obtain rare bottles of top-shelf bourbon worth thousands of dollars.
The state’s governor on Wednesday asked the Oregon liquor and cannabis commission to remove the executive director, Steve Marks, and five other officials after an internal investigation concluded they used their knowledge and connections to obtain the pricey whiskey.
Continue reading...The retailer identified the pricing error on its website before any bottles were sold
Mark Twain reputedly said “Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whisky is barely enough”.
Online shoppers at the supermarket Morrisons came close to testing his theory when the retailer accidentally priced bottles of a Scotch whisky at just £2.50, a 93% discount from its usual price of £36.
Continue reading...Sales of the drink soar as distillers target a whole new market
The setting is unmistakably Japanese: a mountainous backdrop and, out of view but menacingly close, an active volcano. And nestling amid barren rice paddies seeing out the winter, a distillery producing a spirit whose roots lie far from rural Kagoshima.
The administrative district on Japan’s southernmost main island of Kyushu is famed for shochu, a spirit, often made with sweet potatoes or barley, that has sustained family-run businesses here for centuries.
Continue reading...The state department has said it is looking into the apparent disappearance of a nearly $6,000 bottle of whisky given more than two years ago to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by the government of Japan.
In a notice filed in the federal register, the department said it could find no trace of the bottle’s whereabouts and that there is an “ongoing inquiry” into what happened to the booze. The department reported the investigation in its annual accounting of gifts given to senior US officials by foreign governments and leaders.
Continue reading...HMRC figures reveal huge year-on-year falls in trade, with whisky, cheese and chocolate worst hit
Whisky, cheese and chocolate producers have suffered the biggest post-Brexit export losses in the food and drink sector, new figures from HMRC have shown.
Analysis of the figures by the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) shows that cheese exports in January plummeted from £45m to £7m year on year, while whisky exports nosedived from £105m to £40m. Chocolate exports went from £41.4m to just £13m, a decline of 68%.
Continue reading...Single malt sales to US have fallen more than third since retaliatory regime was imposed, says industry body
Losses to Scotch whisky exports after tariffs were imposed by the US have reached £500m, according to an industry body.
New figures suggest exports of single malt Scotch whisky have fallen by more than a third – amounting to more than £500m – since a 25% tariff was imposed in October 2019.
Continue reading...Celebrate the life and work of Robert Burns on 25 January with a traditional scotch. But there’s more you can do with whisky than drinking
Traditionally, Burns Night ,which takes place on 25 January, celebrates the life and work of the poet Robert Burns. With Covid restrictions in place, the usual gatherings full of poetry, revelry and haggis will have to be curtailed, but it is still a convenient excuse to drink whisky on a weeknight.
Continue reading...Talks on reducing charges on items such as Scotch whisky follow UK move to drop levy on Boeing
The UK and the United States are hoping to reach an agreement on reducing trade tariffs, according to Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative in Donald Trump’s outgoing administration.
In an interview with the BBC, Lighthizer said he was in talks with the UK’s international trade secretary, Liz Truss, which could remove hefty tariffs imposed by the US on goods including Scotch whisky.
Continue reading...In The Welsh Wind distillery already taking orders for 30-litre casks of ultra-local spirit
The barley has been grown in fields with spectacular views over Cardigan Bay and malted on a local farm. The all-important water comes from springs deep beneath the Welsh countryside.
A small distillery in west Wales is at the centre of what it hopes may turn out to be a quiet whisky revolution.
Continue reading...MPs say thousands of jobs, many in rural Scotland, could be at risk from planned 25% tax
MPs are calling on Boris Johnson to intervene directly with Donald Trump to prevent the US imposing punitive tariffs of 25% on imported scotch whisky later this month.
The US announced last week that scotch would be among a range of European goods subject to hefty import taxes from 18 October, as it hits back against the EU in the long-running trade dispute over subsidies for Airbus.
Continue reading...City document of 1505 may be first record of a still for making aquavite to drink rather than use in gunpowder
Aberdeen could have been the site of the first whisky still, according to researchers who have uncovered a reference from 1505 mentioning apparatus in the city for making aquavite or “water of life”, as it was known in Middle Scots.
The discovery – locating the still 85 miles north of mediaeval abbey ruins where some believe the spirit was first produced – was made during a digitisation project involving the city’s municipal registers.
Continue reading...