1966 Samaroli Bowmore to go under hammer

An extremely rare bottle of 1966 Bowmore Samaroli Bouquet – a highly coveted bottling among whisky collectors – is to go on sale this week.

The single bottle of Islay single malt is being sold by Whisky Auctioneer as part of an online sale on Friday 22 June and is expected to fetch £25,000-£30,000.

Bottled in 1984, just 720 bottles of the 1966 Bowmore were released by the renowned Italian bottler Silvano Samaroli.

Not only was Samaroli held in great esteem for the quality of whiskies that he selected and presented but also for the eye-catching labels he designed.

His ‘Flower’ series began in 1981 and when it came to bottling the 1966 Bowmore in ’84 he designed a label featuring bright red carnations.

Sean McGlone, director at Whisky Auctioneer, said: “The Bouquet series enjoys a legendary status and reputation within the world of whisky. And rightly so. Not only is the liquid itself exceptional but the artwork on the bottle is exquisite. Naturally we are expecting to see a huge amount of interest in this rare treasure from whisky collectors across the world.”

Interest in rare and collectible whisky – both Scotch and Japanese – is at an all time high and numerous auction houses are seeing new records broken all the time.

The most spectacular record was achieved earlier this year by Bonhams in Hong Kong, which sold two bottles of 1926 Macallan for over US$1 million apiece.