Glenfiddich Whisky for Oldest Scot Sells at Auction for $72,630 - Businessweek

Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- A bottle of Glenfiddich malt whisky produced to honor the oldest living Scot sold at auction today in Edinburgh for 46,850 pounds ($72,632), a European record.

The 55-year-old Scotch, sold by Bonhams in the Scottish capital today, was one of 15 bottles of Glenfiddich Janet Sheed Roberts Reserve, according to the auction catalog. The whisky, which was put into casks in 1955 and bottled last month, had a guide price of between 30,000 and 35,000 pounds with all proceeds from the sale going to Water Aid.

“It’s not often a whisky of this stature comes up at auction,” Martin Green, the whisky specialist at Bonhams, said before the sale. “The rarity and quality of the liquid, the exquisite bespoke packaging and the story behind its creation makes this a collectible that’s hard to value.”

Janet Sheed Roberts is Scotland’s oldest living person, at 110 years old. She lives next to the Glenfiddich distillery in the Scottish Highlands and is part of the Grant family that founded the whisky producer, according to Bonhams. Various whiskies have been sold previously to mark her recent birthdays.

A bottle from the Glenfiddich distillery, with whisky matured for 64 years, sold for 25,200 pounds at Bonhams in Edinburgh on June 16, 2010. That price compared at the time with a world record of 29,400 pounds for a bottle of Scotch set in Glasgow in 2007. It was since surpassed in a sale in New York. The prices include the auctioneer’s fee.

The Glenfiddich sold today in Edinburgh was bought by an unidentified Internet bidder. Offers started at 22,000 pounds and the hammer price was 38,000 pounds.

--Editors: Tim Farrand, Peter Woodifield

To contact the writer on the story: Rodney Jefferson at r.jefferson@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Beech at mbeech@bloomberg.net.