There are only 450 bottles of Glenfiddich's 50-year-old whisky in the world. Photo / Supplied
There are only 450 bottles of Glenfiddich's 50-year-old whisky in the world. Photo / Supplied
Liquorland has got its hands on a 50-year-old whisky so rare that only 450 bottles have ever been made.
The 50-year-old Glenfiddich whisky which is on sale for $50,000 went on the market two weeks ago and is the only one of its kind available in Australasia, the retail liquorchain operating 114 stores around the country, says.
Liquorland chief executive Brendon Lawry was able to secure the 700ml bottle of whisky for the retailer partly through connections he made through whisky society Keepers of the Quaich, made up of just 2700 members around the world, which he was inducted into last year.
Glenfiddich approached Liquorland to stock the limited edition aged whisky. The company jumped at the idea but instead of putting it on the market Lawry organised a tasting to crack open the bottle. Glenfiddich got wind of this and gave it a second bottle to sell, Lawry told the Herald.
Glenfiddich has released 50 bottles of its 50-year-old whisky to retailers around the world every year since 2009. This year is its last release of the spirit.
Lawry said no other New Zealand liquor retailers had received a bottle of the whisky until now. He said the whisky had received quite a bit of interest and he expected the bottle to sell fast.
"Because of the limited nature of them ... they become pretty rare commodities."
Whisky and the premium spirits category is an area of focus for the retail chain, Lawry said, given the spirits' growing popularity. "Over the last five, 10 years it has gone from being something that was pretty much an old man's drink to now being much more vogue and much more across different age ranges.
"We've really driven whisky because its a great category - it's got all the premium cues and there's some really cool product and brand stories in there."
Brendon Lawry, CEO of Liquorland, holding a bottle of Glenfiddich's 50-year-old whisky. Photo / Supplied
Lawry said $50,000 price tag for Glenfiddich's 50-year-old whisky could be justified by the fact that the whisky was first distilled in 1955.
"They've had to obviously look after it for 50 years and the finer details of old whisky is not all of the barrels can deal with holding onto whisky for that long ... it takes a huge amount of time for to get that right.
"As whisky is aged in barrels every year a certain amount of it evaporates so over 50 years what started as a full barrel you only have a small percentage of it left which is what drives the value of it up."
Glenfiddich has only made 450 bottles of its 50-year-old whisky. Photo / Supplied
Unlike wine, whisky does not age in the bottle.
Lawry said the 50-year-old whisky could be kept forever as long as it was stored upright and not left in high tempreatures.
"This is extremely rare for New Zealand and even pretty rare at a global level."
Sales of whisky in New Zealand are growing at a rate of 6 per cent each year, with more than 1.8 million litres of scotch whisky sold annually.
