Dalmore 50-year-old sells for world record £28,000

A Scotch whisky from a Highland distillery has sold for a world record £28,000 at auction.

One of the world’s most sought-after whiskies, Dalmore 50 Year Old, has sold at Whisky-Online Auctions in Blackpool.

Originally created by Dalmore’s legendary master blender Richard Paterson in 1978, the youngest spirit in the assemblage is believed to have been from 1926 and several older liquids were used including whiskies distilled at Dalmore in the 19th century.

Only 60 hand-numbered bottles of this Dalmore 50 year old were ever produced, packaged in hand-cut crystal decanters in a hardwood presentation case. The whisky was bottled at 52%, an unusually high strength for a spirit of this great age.

Bottle No. 1 of the Dalmore 50 year old, after frantic bidding, brought the hammer price to £28,000, a new world record for this bottle.

Available for around £6000 in 2012, the value of Dalmore 50yo has escalated dramatically in recent months, with previous bottles selling for £14,300 in January 2017, £18,600 in March 2017 and then £22,100 in August 2017.

Wayne Ormerod, founder of Whisky-Online Auctions, said: ‘The Dalmore 50-year-old is a combination of liquid genius and pure beauty.

‘There are very few single malt Scotch whiskies distilled in the 1920s that have been bottled at such an age combined with a high bottling strength. This is a whisky that for many years never really established the reputation it truly deserves.

‘We know this bottle very well having handled multiple examples over the years and although our estimate was conservative at £18,000-£22,000, we were very confident that we would overperform on behalf of our client.

‘We had numerous interested bidders from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and even strong bidders from here in the UK. But when the hammer finally fell it was nice to see a regular customer from Italy secured themselves a fantastic piece of Scottish liquid history.’

Founded in 2012, Whisky-Online Auctions is the sister company to the long-established whisky retail website Whisky-Online.com.