A Week in Whisky: Thinking outside the box

EVENTS operator The Whisky Lounge has unveiled its first online festival.

Its “Whisky Festival in a Box” will be broadcast live from the Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery on 16-18 October.

The festival consists of seven themed tasting sessions – “Scotch #1, Scotch #2, World, Asian, English, Indie and Peated” – with each session accompanied by a whisky tasting box containing six samples.

Eddie Ludlow, founder of The Whisky Lounge, said: “After 12 years of running whisky events, we’ve definitely had our most challenging year so far, along with the rest of the events industry.

“We hope whisky enthusiasts up and down the country will join us virtually to celebrate all things whisky as some light relief in these very uncertain times.”

Macallan does it again…

No prizes for guessing that the top seller at Christie’s online wine and spirits auction was a bottle of Macallan

The Macallan Millennium 50 Year Old was distilled in January 1949 and bottled in August 1999.

It came with its original presentation box, and sold for $35,000 (£27,100).

A bottle of Macallan 29 Year Old 1976 was another highlight of the auction, fetching $17,500 (£13,550).

…and will probably do it again on Halloween

After last year’s sale of “The Ultimate Whisky Collection” for a record £7.6 million – including The Macallan Fine & Rare 60-Year-Old 1926, which set an auction record for any spirit at £1.5m – Sotheby’s is back with, erm, “The Ultimate Whisky Collection Part II”.

Assembled by an American collector over 20 years, “The Ultimate Whisky Collection” was billed as “the most comprehensive catalogue of whisky ever to be offered by a single owner in a single auction”.

This year’s auction in London on Halloween will feature 190 lots, consisting of whiskies from Scotland and Japan, plus whiskeys from Ireland, and is expected to bring in around £800,000.

The auction will also include a complete set of six Macallan whiskies from 40 years old to the “oldest whisky ever released by the brand”.

And finally…

Ardnamurchan Distillery will release its first single malt on Monday, with a price tag of £45.

The distillery produces spirit using both peated and unpeated malt, with a 50-50 split in its maiden malt.

In other release news, Benromach has added a 21 year old to its core range – priced at £129.99 – to mark the resdesign of its labels.

And The Dalmore has launched a 12 year old sherry cask select single malt at £69, with master blender Richard “The Nose” Paterson teaming up with three sherry cask suppliers from Andalucia: Tevasa, Vasyma, and Paez.

Read more stories on Scottish Field’s whisky pages.

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