I was looking over the selection of booze at a pricey restaurant the other day. As is my habit I looked up brands I am not familiar with (I don’t drink anyway). to have something to read about. They had a series of MaCallan whiskys like 12 year, 15, 18, etc. When I searched for them I found a link to this amazing vintage. Some 52 year old MaCallan for $90,000! Gee, I wonder if you can buy it by the glass anywhere. I could get a 2nd mortgage to try it.
I was just talking to my brother about this a few days ago. Not specifically about Macallan but about stupidly expensive liquor.
I do drink but I told my brother that, even if I won the billion dollar lottery, I would never pay for such a thing.
My brother suggested that he might try it once just to see but otherwise agreed. I doubt someone will open such a bottle for one shot though. You’d have to buy the whole thing.
With Scotch, like any high end luxury item, you can find very exclusive editions that cost outrageous amounts. And, as with the other items, there are vast diminishing returns. Storing something for 50+ years comes at a cost, so it’s not just slapping a fancy label on something you can buy much cheaper elsewhere.
I’ve had expensive liquors ($600-1000/bottle) and they are remarkable. Is it worth the price? That’s entirely up to the drinker, but it’s damn good.
If you want to browse some expensive Scotch, there are many options.
Holy hannah, I should say so! Heck, for some of those, you’d have to take out a mortgage.
The most expensive I’ve seen “in person” is the single-malt Scotch on offer from a local liquor store. I don’t recall what brand or age it is, but it’s $47,000, in a locked case, and the store only has the one bottle. A friend worked there; she said they didn’t expect to sell it, but it being on display did bring in customers.
I’m 58. If I’d bought a couple cases of Macallan 12-year-old when I was 21, could I sell them for a fortune in three years, or does it not work that way?
I am guessing (again, not an expert) that the barrels need to be stored in ideal conditions that you probably can’t guarantee in your basement.
Also, I doubt someone would be willing to pay $5,000 for a bottle you filled from a barrel in your basement that you “swear” has been there for 20 years and is Macallans.
Also, you lose some scotch every year to the angel’s share (evaporation).
This thread reminds me of when a guy got pissed at a restaurant when they told him a wine a cost “Thirty Seven Fifty” and he thought they meant $37.50 when they really meant $3750.
Dunno about scotch, but Buffalo Trace (a bourbon distillery) sells barrels and they give a 4k to 15k range for their barrels. Scotch tends to be more expensive than bourbon (it’s older, for one), so I’d guess you’re looking at >$10k for a 12 year old scotch barrel.
While it’s basically true that you’re unlikely to be able to age whisk(e)y in your basement and flip it, some of the most sought after American whiskeys are “barrel picks” where someone buys barrels from the distillery and puts them under their own label. Example: Buy LeNells Red Hook Rye 1 | Flask Wines
I’m old enough to remember when that story was about Neiman Marcus cookies, and reading this story doesn’t make it sound any more plausible. We’re expected to believe that the customer asked the waitress (not a sommelier) to recommend a wine, she immediately recommended the single most expensive wine on the menu, and at no point in this process did anyone in the restaurant ask “Just to make sure, you want the thirty-seven-hundred dollar bottle, right?” before corking and serving it?
I bought my brother a bottle of 18 year old Macallan for his 50th birthday in 1994, not sure what year it was bottled. A few years ago it was valued at about $8,000 not sure if it has gone up since. Also not sure what year it was bottled. He told me it has lost about 1/4" to evaporation which does affect the price.
The year on the label tells you the age of the youngest whisky in the blend. The minimum age is 3 years. Even whiskies labelled “single malt” can be blends of different ages, but must all come from the same distillery to count as “single malt”. Once bottled a whisky doesn’t improve.
A guy I know bought a barrel of whisky several years ago. The barrel is kept at the distillery and once it reached 3 years old he could draw off a few bottles. I had a taster of a 5 year old and it wasn’t very nice. I don’t know how long he held onto it.
