It’s impossible for a whisky lover not to be left slack-jawed by the 39 lots that make up next Thursday’s Distillers One of One auction, such is the rarity of the liquid on show. An archetypically funky Brora from 1972, the oldest release yet from Bowmore, a 68-year-old Glen Grant. And that’s before we even get on to the packaging. Well, ‘packaging’ is an inadequate term, as anyone will attest who was lucky enough to view some of the lots paraded at Sotheby’s Bond Street London offices recently. That Brora, for example, is suspended in a gravity-defying decanter, encased in a hand-carved stone sculpture that echoes the eye of the distillery ‘mascot’, the Scottish wildcat. Weighing in at 110kg, it took four people to lift it onto its plinth, according to Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s global head of spirits. As for opening this Excalibur-like contraption, you’ll need a bronze wildcat magnetic ‘key’ that slots into the top of the sculpture. The Bowmore lot is a 55-year-old single malt – the distillery’s oldest release to date. It comes in an irresistibly tactile, slab-like bottle that is the result of many, many abandoned attempts to achieve the perfect look, and is designed to recall the sea stacks of Bowmore’s Islay home. There appears to be no air inside it – the liquid reaches all the way to the top – but some clever physics (reputedly inspired by a cigarette lighter) has concealed the air bubble from sight. Pouring a dram, you sense, will
This Article was originally published on The Drink Business - Wine
