Leading whisky auction platform, Whisky Auctioneer, has
announced that a single cask bottle of Ardbeg distilled in 1974, has sold at
auction for £35,000.
One of only 36 bottles from cask #2742, the smallest-ever
official single cask release from the Islay based distillery, has achieved a
record hammer price for a single bottle of Ardbeg.
 |
| Single bottle of Ardbeg sells at auction for £35,000 |
1974 is a legendary vintage for Ardbeg, as it contains the last batch of spirit to have been made using exclusively on-site-peated malt. The use of externally-peated malt after 1974 caused a change in style, which makes these vintages incredibly sought after, as they represent the final ‘old-school’ Ardbeg’s.
The bottles from this cask #2742 were originally only
available to hotel bars around the world, so many will have been opened or
consumed.
Commenting on the news, Joe Wilson, Head Curator &
Spirits Specialist at Whisky Auctioneer, said: “As Whisky Auctioneer continues
to grow, instances of auctioning a bottle for the first time have become rarer
yet all the more special. We were hugely excited to be lucky enough to
encounter this near-mythical single cask from Ardbeg, notable for its important
vintage as well as its tiny 36-bottle yield. Ardbeg is a distillery with a
somewhat tumultuous past, but since the turn of the century has deservedly
become one of the world’s most desired whiskies, as evidenced by the high
international interest in both this bottle and its incredible result.”
In July, Ardbeg announced that it had sold a one-of-a-kind
1975 cask of whisky to a private collector in Asia for £16 Million.
Posted by Steve Rush